Home Depot considers Salem

SALEM -- Home Depot, a giant in the home improvement and do-it-yourself retail market, is considering building a store in or near Salem.
"We'd like to. Very much so," Matt Tiefenbraun, Home Depot spokesman, said this morning. "It's been on our radar screen for quite some time," he said of the company's interest in Salem.
Tiefenbraun wouldn't discuss store locations, or say whether one possible site is near a Wal-Mart being constructed along the south side of state Route 14 on the city's east side.
There is a proposal before city council, made by a local real estate agent, to zone as commercial recently annexed property on the north side of state Route 14, across from the Wal-Mart.
The 184,000-square-foot Wal-Mart is expected to open later this year.
A decision on whether to build a Home Depot in Salem will be made as soon as possible, Tiefenbraun said. But he wouldn't elaborate.
The Atlanta-based company bills itself as the world's largest home improvement retailer. It operates 1,369 stores.
An average-size store would be about 95,000 square-feet and employ about 110 people in full- and part-time jobs.