Star Tribune Mon, 05 May 2008 16:35:10 GMT
Home improvement chain Menards develops subdivisions in Illinois, Indiana
MILWAUKEE - Home improvement retailer Menards is creating need for its drills, saws and toilet seats in a way that's unique to its industry. The Eau Claire-based company is developing homes in residential subdivisions. Homes have already been built in Yorkville, Ill., and plans are in the works for Urbana, Ill., and Warsaw, Ind. Menard Inc. is actively looking for new projects around its existing stores, said Jamie Radabaugh, director of sales and leasing for the company's property division. The company gets deals on land when it plans stores and then sells the land to home developers. This could be a first for the industry, said Scott Wright, a spokesman for the North American Retail Hardware Association, an Indianapolis-based trade group with about 13,000 members, most of them independent. "I certainly haven't heard of anyone doing anything like that," Wright said about Menards' subdivision business. "Especially in this economic climate." In 2001, Yorkville, on the fringe of the Chicago metropolitan area, annexed around 250 acres of farmland owned by Menards. Some of the land was set aside for a new store, which opened two years later, said Lynn Dubajic, executive director of the Yorkville Economic Development Corp. Parcels were set aside for 164 single-family homes and 68 townhouse-style condos, Dubajic said.
[[keywords: Housing;Living;Metro;]]
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