Darren Pitts, vice president at the Phoenix office of CB Richard Ellis Inc., tells GlobeSt.com that the land search for Tucson's first Lowe's began when Montgomery Ward's declared bankruptcy in December 2000. With 10 big boxes coming to market, Pitts went down the list looking for potential Lowe's sites.

The average Montgomery Ward's store is 80,000 sf to 100,000 sf, making most sites unsuitable for the average size Lowe's and supplemental garden center. In Tucson, the bankrupt retailer was looking to exit a 102,525-sf site at 4147 N. Oracle Rd. It was the best bet going in a market short on big box retail sites, Pitts explained.

Still, Lowe's would need more space so the plan called for the purchase a residential tract at the rear of the site and ground leases for a three-tenant pad site, which brought the demo of a Peter Piper's Pizza to make way for the home improvement retailer.

"The site serves as an excellent first location for Lowe's in Tucson," says Tim Pouty, CB Richard Ellis' managing director in Tucson. "It provides them with a strong presence in a critical submarket of the city, where available real estate is scarce."

Pitts has helped North Wilkesboro, NC-based Lowe's open nine stores in the Phoenix area and one in Yuma. He says these openings are a reflection of a Western US expansion plan formulated several years ago. He could not specify how many more Lowe's would come to Tucson, but did say its chief rival, Home Depot, currently has six stores in the area, which might make a good marker as to how Lowe's will build out the town.