Home Depot opens to serve Kendall shoppers

February 8, 2008
By Rowena Vergara Staff Writer

YORKVILLE -- A second big-box retailer has joined Kohl's at Kendall Marketplace, Yorkville's first major retail development at Route 34 and Cannonball Trail.

"It's nice to have stores locally because I used to have to go to Fox Valley (mall in Aurora)," Fay Holl of Yorkville said as she shopped at the gleaming Home Depot Thursday.

Super Target, Dick's Sporting Goods, Famous Footwear, PetSmart, craft store Michaels, Linens N Things, among others, also are slated to fill the mammoth 800,000-square-foot shopping center being developed by Harlem Irving Co. and Mid-America Development Partners.

Shoppers should expect an "active, bustling group of retailers" opening up shop by the fall, said Lynn Dubajic, Yorkville Economic Development Corporation's executive director.

The Yorkville Home Depot, at 735 Edward Lane, is opening at a time when the housing market has slowed and consumer spending has weakened.

Known as the world's largest home-improvement chain, Home Depot has suffered from the nationwide real estate slowdown as a result. The company reported a 27 percent drop in profits in the third quarter of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006.

The chain has 2,224 stores worldwide.

rvergara@scn1.com