5 Years After Lowe's Closed 20 U.S. Stores, 5 Unique Adaptive Re-Uses of the Space

5 years ago this week Lowe’s announced that it would close 20 of its U.S. Big Box retail stores.

Although these closures represented just 1% of the 1700+ Lowe’s U.S. store base, it was a rare mass store closure for the home improvement retailer.

But while the Lowe’s store closures dumped over 2.5 million square feet of space into the market, the real estate did not sit vacant for long.

Virtually all sites have been re-tenanted - but not with competitors or even with other retailers.

Instead many former Lowe’s stores have been the subject of unique and creative adaptive reuse.

Most Lowe’s stores are ~140,000 square foot warehouse-like, freestanding buildings on large land parcels. They generally feature high ceilings and open floor plans and most sites have good parking, access and signage - all features that provide for a variety of potential uses.

And since Lowe’s owns ~85% of its stores, it could decide the new use for much of its real estate - so no former Lowe’s stores would re-open as a Home Depot, Menards, 84 Lumber or Ace Hardware.

In fact very few are now used for conventional retail - and many instead feature "unique" uses including the 5 examples cited below:

5) College of Lake County, IL Advanced Technology Center - Gurnee, IL

The former Lowe's in Gurnee, IL recently opened as the College of Lake County Advanced Technology Center (ATC).

The ATC is part of the college's efforts to create a regional training engine that supports a high-tech, high wage manufacturing workforce in Lake County, IL.

It has a showcase central atrium that connects two lab areas:

A 27,000 square foot welding and fabrication lab for students to learn welding techniques and process and a 12,000 square foot industrial technology area stocked with over $5 million of machinery and designed for students to learn how to install, operate and repair manufacturing equipment.

The College of Lake County is now working on future phases of the ATC, including the buildout of an additional 85,000 square feet of the building for manufacturing education.

4) Cubesmart Self Storage - Florissant, MO

The acquirers of the former Lowe's in Florissant, MO needed to first secure a zoning ordinance change to allow for a non-hardware store use at the site.

That move was critical since the original zoning granted by the municipality for Lowe's to originally develop its store only permitted a hardware store on the premises.

And Lowe's recorded a deed restriction when it sold the property to the self storage developers that prohibited a future home improvement use at the site.

Once the community approved the requested zoning modification, the new owners of the Lowe's building redeveloped it into a 100,000 square foot Cubesmart Self Storage.

3) Unique Classic Cars - Mankato, MN

The former Lowe's in Mankato, MN is now home to Unique Classic Cars, an auto dealership that buys, sells, trades and consigns classic cars and specialty vehicles.

Unique stocks 150+ classic vehicles and muscle cars in a museum-like showroom in the 140,000 square foot former Lowe’s Big Box retail building.

It also has a service department that undertakes everything from basic oil changes to the full restoration of classic vehicles.

2) Goodwill Industries of SE Louisiana - New Orleans, LA

The ~139,000 square foot former Lowe’s in New Orleans closed in 2019.

But it was recently acquired by Goodwill Industries of SE Louisiana with plans to renovate the building into a multifunctional space that includes a retail outlet, warehouse, recycling area and even a workforce development center.

The acquisition and renovation of the building has been made possible in large part to a $10 MM grant that Goodwill of SE LA received from McKenzie Scott's Yield Giving organization in 2020 - one of nearly fifty regional Goodwill organizations that received multimillion dollar grants from Yield Giving over the past few years.

1) Parx Casino - Shippensburg, PA

But perhaps the most interesting adaptive reuses of a former Lowe’s store?

The Parx Casino that opened in February 2023 in a former Lowe's store in Shippensburg, PA.

This Parx "satellite" Casino has 500+ slot machines, 48 electronic table positions, sports betting kiosks, and a 100 seat restaurant and sports bar.

Although Parx initially is using (only) 73,000 square feet of the 140,000 square foot former Lowe's building, it is already working on plans to expand the casino and utilize the remainder of the property.