The University of Idaho has leased land to Home Depot, and residents in Moscow can expect it to be completed in 2025. The proposed Home Depot will be a 136,000 square-foot retail store and have a garden center according to the lease documentation.
The land that is being leased was originally acquired by the University in 1926, and at that time was 248 acres of land only a mile from the central campus. The land in the past has been used for crops by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
The University is unconcerned about the operations of their dairy farm near the site and expects it to continue as normal.
Comparatively, this land has been leased out before back in 1978 when 45 acres of the land was used for the construction on the Palouse Mall.
“The lease will produce more than $2.2 million over the twenty-year initial term of the land lease,” Jodi Walker, Executive Director of Communications for the University wrote.
The proposed lease that both the University and representatives of Home Depot have agreed on is at least 20 years.
“We were contacted by Home Depot, and they expressed an interest in finding a site in Moscow and were particularly interested in property that the University of Idaho owned out on the north farm immediately adjacent to Palouse Mall,” Gerard Billington, the University’s Real Estate Officer said. “They were interested in Home Depot leasing 12 acres of land to generate that revenue in an area that the University had designated for commercial development if opportunities come up.”
Walker continued to write, “The proceeds from this lease provide a new revenue stream to support students, supporting our efforts to keep tuition as low as possible.”
While there is much support for this by the University, through public meetings the town has held, residents seem to express their concerns. Even so, the University seems hopeful that this will have a positive impact on the community.
“I think anytime a business comes into a community, there’s tax revenue that’s generated,” Billington said. “Competition, and variety that’s provided to the customers, so I think in that way it is a positive.”
According to an article by the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, a community meeting where representatives of Home Depot and community members discussed the proposed building, there were many concerns about a large box business coming into a small community. The article described how one resident, the director of operations of Moscow- Pullman Building and Supply store, Alan Espenschade, and his concerns with regards to his employees and competition from Home Depot. He expressed that the store may have to hire less full-time employees, and a quote from the article states, “which goes against our [Moscow Building] entire culture.”
Moreso, there has even been some concern surrounding students about bigger corporations, like Home Depot, coming into Moscow.
“I feel like there are already plenty of corporations on University land,” an anonymous student said. “So far it seems like the school tries to put emphasis on supporting small businesses, but I feel like in the school itself, that isn’t being shown.”
Despite these concerns, the University remains positive that Home Depot will have a positive impact on the community.
“The University of Idaho is a local business committed to its community,” Walker wrote. “It supports business development, employment opportunities and economic stability. The university is tasked with providing access to and affordability of higher education to the students of Idaho. In turn, those students, their families and alumni supporters add to the economic viability of Moscow businesses.”
Home Depot has not made a comment on this matter.
Andrea Roberts can be reached at [email protected].