On the heels of a city initiative to market Bedford-Stuyvesant to businesses,
Home Depot, which bills itself as the world’s largest home improvement
chain, opened for business Thursday at 585 DeKalb Ave.
In March, local groups kicked off a campaign to reconstruct a neighborhood
slogan from the rough and tumble “Bed-Stuy Do or Die” tagline
long held by residents, to “Bed-Stuy and Proud of It.”
Not long after, the city’s Economic Development Corporation began
their newest initiative, selling chunks of industrial and vacant land
to developers and businesses for chump change in hopes of a wide-scale
reinvigoration of the neighborhood that lies east of Clinton Hill.
Fittingly, Home Depot prides itself on using existing structures for their
new stores, and revamped an office building once used by the IBM Corporation,
which features a two-level design with an upper mezzanine for the kitchen
and appliance showroom.
A 7,300-square-foot garden center is at the entrance-level showroom, and
an adjacent 285-car parking lot fills the rest of the block bounded by
Willoughby and DeKalb avenues, between Sandford and Walworth streets.
Though firmly in Bedford-Stuy, the store is likely to attract business
from the neighboring brownstone neighborhoods of Clinton Hill, Prospect
Heights and Fort Greene.
Other Home Depots are in Gowanus, Starrett City, Mill Basin and Gravesend.
The new store’s manager, Roy Jackson, said they hired locally to
fill the 230 job openings, and planned on being an active member of the
community.
At the grand opening party Wednesday, called “Neighborhood Night,”
the company was to present $2,000 in donations to local causes, including
P.S. 54 and Magnolia Tree Earth Center, a 33-year-old neighborhood organization
promoting urban beautification through educational environmental and arts
programs for youth.
“One of our core values is giving back to the community,” said
Jackson, adding that the workplace tries to create incentives to do that
through volunteerism.
The Home Depot is just another step in the formerly crime-riddled neighborhood’s
increasing development, part of which can be seen in the asking prices
for brownstone walk-up houses, which hover around $1 million.
In April, the EDC announced a $10 million project spurred by their sale
of five lots totaling about 12,500-square-feet to two affiliated companies,
AM&G Waterproofing LLC and Park Avenue Roofing & Building Supplies
LLC for $210,000.
The companies will construct a 132,500-square-foot building on the property
and adjacent properties they already own at Atlantic and Saratoga avenues,
consolidate and expand their Clinton Hill and Williamsburg businesses,
and create new jobs for the two companies, which already employ 250. The
city will offer financial assistance by way of tax benefits said to be
worth about $5.8 million over 25 years.
