Home Depot to take over store at Raceway Mall


JERRY WOLKOWITZ  Construction workers renovate the exterior of the former Builder’s Square store at Freehold Raceway Mall in preparation for its reopening as a Home Depot. Store officials anticipate a late August opening. JERRY WOLKOWITZ Construction workers renovate the exterior of the former Builder’s Square store at Freehold Raceway Mall in preparation for its reopening as a Home Depot. Store officials anticipate a late August opening.

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — One of the nation’s leading building supply and hardware retailers will soon open a store in the township.

The Home Depot Inc. is in the process of renovating the former Builder’s Square store at the Freehold Raceway Mall and expects to open in late August, a company spokesman told the News Transcript this week.

Freehold Township’s Home Depot will join a new Home Depot at West Farms Road and Route 9 in Howell that is scheduled to open on June 29 and employ 200 people.

Speaking from the company’s base in Atlanta, spokesman John Simley said it is not uncommon for two Home Depot stores to be opened this close to one another.


JERRY WOLKOWITZ  The interior of the former Builder’s Square store is undergoing a transformation into a Home Depot. JERRY WOLKOWITZ The interior of the former Builder’s Square store is undergoing a transformation into a Home Depot.

"Store location is all determined by the market," he said. "We have two stores in Patchogue, N.Y., that are 1 mile apart, and stores in Nanuet and West Nyack, N.Y., that are 4 miles apart. It’s a great problem to have, to be too busy."

At 89,781 square feet, the Freehold Township Home Depot will be slightly smaller than a traditional Home Depot, although the space was much too large to be considered as a location for a Villagers hardware store, which is Home Depot’s smaller-scale hardware store, Simley said.

Home Depot is renovating the Freehold Township location, according to Simley, so that it will accommodate the racking system, lighting and power needs Home Depot requires.

Home Depot’s plan to open a store in the township was also noted by Mayor David Segal.

"We’ve seen workmen around there and we’ve been told they took over the lease," Segal said. "We didn’t know it was going to be a Home Depot or (possibly) a Villagers hardware, which is one of their subsidiaries.

"They’re limited by our ordinance which doesn’t allow for outside storage of wood and materials like that, so it’s not on the scale of the Home Depot in Howell, which is a mega-store," the mayor added.

Segal said representatives of Home Depot approached Freehold Township about five or six years ago and expressed interest in building the type of store like the one now going up in Howell, but township officials were not in favor of such a plan.

The present transformation of the former Builder’s Square space into a Home Depot did not require municipal approval, he noted.

"If they’re not making any major interior changes, they don’t need more than a permit from the construction department. They don’t need approval from the planning or zoning board. It’s the same building, the same size and the same business."

According to Guy Leighton, Freehold Township’s assistant planner, no variances or waivers were required by Home Depot and the corporation secured all of the building permits that were required prior to beginning renovations.

News Transcript Managing Editor Mark Rosman and staff writer Dave Ben-jamin contributed to this story.