The razing of outbuildings and installation of chain-link fence to block off a mostly vacant strip of stores usually indicate the end for an outdated shopping center. For the Citadel Crossing, they’re signs of rebirth.

Demolition recently got under way on one phase of the center’s face-lift and soon will start to make way for a Lowe’s home improvement store at the former Kmart location amid the half-empty center.

The center’s neighbors and business owners couldn’t be happier, and city officials hope the store will spark investment along the South Academy Boulevard corridor, which has been hollowed out as stores fled to the Powers Boulevard retail district.

“The purchase of real estate and eventual construction of the Lowe’s store is a huge investment and is a strong vote of confidence for the South Academy trade area,” said Bob Cope, leader of the city’s retail enhancement program.”It’s also going to act as a catalyst for additional economic development and expansion in the corridor.”

After at least two years of planning, Lowe’s closed on the property last month. Demolition of the former Kmart store and part of the former Best Buy will begin soon.

Construction will start next summer, and the store is slated to open in February 2010, said Maureen Rich, spokeswoman for Mooresville, N.C.-based Lowe’s Companies Inc.Although the economic downturn has delayed progress on some projects, Lowe’s plans to open 120 stories this year as projected, she said. The company has scaled back next year’s plans and will open 75 to 85 new stores, Rich said.

The Springs store will span 103,000 square feet, with an additional 31,000-square-foot garden center. That’s about 12 percent smaller than three Lowe’s stores recently opened in Ruckersville, Va., Silverdale, Wash., and Avon, Ohio.

Hoover’s, a Dun and Bradstreet subsidiary that provides business information, noted Lowe’s is opening smaller and fewer new stores in an effort to increase efficiency and cut capital outlay costs.

Hoover’s also reported that building permits for homes, which signal future demand for building materials, fell by 36 percent compared with a year ago. That might explain Lowe’s less ambitious plans for 2009.

While Lowe’s larger stores stock 40,000 items, Rich said the Springs store will offer 32,000 items. However, she said an additional 500,000 items will be available by special order.

“The customer isn’t going to feel the difference while shopping the store,” she said, noting that aisles will be as wide as those of other stores.

The store, Colorado Springs’ third Lowe’s, brings 120 jobs, most of them full-time, she said.

While Rich said Lowe’s usually builds stores from the ground up, it’s not uncommon for the company to demolish an existing building and then build.

She said Lowe’s doesn’t announce a store will be built until the real-estate deal is closed. The company plans an announcement about the Springs store soon, she said.

When Lowe’s got the green light from the City Council about a year ago, the center was 52 percent occupied.

The center’s owner, Windsor Capital Group Inc., of Santa Monica, Calif., didn’t return phone calls, but a drive through the center shows there are at least 13 vacancies, some of them large storefronts: the former Best Buy, Burlington Coat Factory and Office Max.

That leaves about 13 stores occupied, including Western Warehouse, which is going out of business. The outbuildings are largely occupied.

Bernadette Kneavel’s Hobby Town store has been a part of the center for 18 years, nearly the lifetime of Citadel Crossing, which was built in 1988 and 1989.

“We’ve hung in here since the beginning,” she said, noting her store has a loyal niche clientele.

“With Lowe’s coming in, it’s going to help our business,” said co-owner Joe Muise, noting Hobby Town’s customers are mostly men, the same demographic to which a home improvement store tends to appeal.

A few doors down, the Picture Show movie theater, which shows movies at discount prices, still does OK, because it’s a family-entertainment bargain, said general manager Beverly Williams. But she thinks Lowe’s will be a boon to the theater.

“It’s extremely important to get someone like Lowe’s,” she said. “It’s huge.”

City planner Rick O’Connor said the Citadel Crossing renovation includes two projects.

The first is demolition of a former Chinese restaurant and construction of a much larger 19,558-square-foot building. What businesses will locate there wasn’t available, because Windsor Capital didn’t return phone calls.

The other project is Lowe’s. To meet its requirement for 533 parking spaces, more room will be carved out by narrowing the entry street from Academy into the center just north of the Black Eyed Pea restaurant, O’Connor said.

He said the former Kmart store and part of the Best Buy space will be razed to make way for Lowe’s.

Initially opposed by neighbors to the east, the project was revamped to satisfy residents’ demands to save a buffer of trees between the building and homes, enclose the trash compactor, eliminate the garden center’s loud speakers and restrict forklift activity and truck deliveries to mostly daylight hours.

Although the 100-foot setback behind the store was whittled to 82 feet on the south side, neighbors are excited the project will be built, said John Cerny, a neighbor who headed up a group of residents active in the planning process.

“They’re happy to see something – finally,” Cerny said. “We’d rather have something there than nothing there. Our number one choice was a grocery store, but once the ball started rolling and looked like it was going to go, it was a matter of keeping the integrity of the residential area.”

Cerny called the project a “cornerstone” for redeveloping a stretch of Academy from Maizeland Road to Drennan Road, which the city has designated for retail development.

Cope said rumors are swirling about retailers moving to the Citadel Crossing as Lowe’s progresses. He wouldn’t identify the stores but said, “Some will be relocations, but others will be new stores and expansions, both with overall positive benefits.”

Cerny, an economist by trade, said he’s glad Lowe’s is getting started and he’s eager to watch how the center – and the Academy corridor – reacts to a heavy hitter like Lowe’s.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out,” he said.

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