Lowe's cancels Huntington Station store

Home-improvement company Lowe's has halted construction of its planned store in Huntington Station just four months after the retailer broke ground.

The company purchased the old Huntington Townhouse property on Jericho Turnpike in 2007 for a reported $35 million, but the abandoned building sat as a weedy eyesore on the 18-acre site until late June, when demolition began.

"Lowe's is no longer pursuing building a store on this site," company spokeswoman Karen Cobb said Wednesday in an emailed statement. The company will put the property up for sale, she said.

The Huntington Station store was to open in the summer and create about 125 jobs.

Lowe's representatives met with town officials Wednesday to discuss keeping the construction site safe, including shoring up retaining walls and providing security for the property.

"We're disappointed in the decision by Lowe's," Huntington Town spokesman A.J. Carter said. "Our concern right now is that the property gets stabilized."

The news comes after Lowe's Oct. 17 announcement that it would be closing 20 underperforming stores in 15 states, including one upstate, and halting "a number of planned store projects." Starting next year, Lowe's plans to open 10 to 15 stores per year, instead of the previously projected 30.

In August, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Lowe's ratings outlook to negative, citing the company's lowered earnings expectations, competition from Home Depot, the troubled economy and "challenging" housing market.

Lowe's has eight stores on Long Island. Last year, the company purchased the 20-acre Commack Multiplex property at the intersection of the Long Island Expressway and Sagtikos Parkway for $13 million. The cinema closed in September.

Cobb would not comment on the company's plans to build a home improvement center on that site, saying only that "Lowe's owns property in Commack, but we have made no formal announcement regarding plans."

But Frank DeRubeis, director of Smithtown Planning and Community Development Department, said he received a call Tuesday from an attorney representing Lowe's, telling him that the company's plans in Commack were still ongoing. Lowe's preliminary application is before the town's board of zoning appeals.

Carmine Martuscello, director of marketing for Racanelli Construction, the Melville general contractor hired to build the Huntington Station Lowe's, said his firm was notified on Oct. 28 to stop work on the project.

David Cohen, 62, who lives adjacent to the property on Iceland Drive, said he had been wondering why he didn't hear any construction noise from the site for the past few days.

"I was thinking, 'Hey, what's this? A long vacation?' " he said, adding that he hopes Lowe's secures the property against trespassers and provides some landscaping.

Robert Bontempi, chairman of the Huntington Township Chamber of Commerce, called the announcement "a tragic sign of the times."

But Kenneth Breslin, principal at Sabre Real Estate Group in Garden City, said he could envision multifamily housing or even another catering hall at the site, rather than a big-box retailer like Lowe's.

"I think it will be fought-over property, but it just is a matter of pricing," he said.