Northern Ontario's first Lowe's department store is only the first of several new businesses to be completed in a large-scale New Sudbury development.

Lowe's is the only business that's been announced for the site so far, but there is still a 105,000-square-foot lot available west of Lowe's and a 23,000-square-foot lot in front.

The 153,000-square-foot Lowe's home building store includes a large garden centre and will be located at 1199 Marcus Dr., behind the Silver City in New Sudbury. It's scheduled to be open by Christmas.

“That is in the ground right now,” said Guido Mazza, director of building and services and chief building official for the City of Greater Sudbury. “I've got inspectors there daily who are putting the boots to that work.”

“It's coming along superbly.”

According to Lowe's Canada spokesperson Maureen Rich, a store, such as the one planned for Sudbury, typically employs up to 175 people and costs about $23 million to build. The South Carolina-based department store opened its first Canadian locations in December 2007 and is expanding on its 12 stores already operating in Ontario.

The preparation of the area is a major undertaking as massive amounts of blasting needed to be done to clear the rocky site, which is located in one of the highest points in the city.

But it isn't just Lowe's that's building in Sudbury. The 105,000-square-foot west lot has an prospective buyer, said Art Potvin, manager of development with the city.

“He (the developer) tells me he's got some clients that are interested in moving fairly quickly; however, we are not privie to who they are at this time,” said Potvin. “Given the amount of infrastructure work they're doing up there though, I think they're pretty serious about getting that going fairly quickly.”

The new store could be finished as early as next building season.

The development will also have high standards for landscaping treatment with green space throughout the area, said Potvin.

In order to accommodate the increased traffic the three new businesses will create, the city is building a traffic light at Barrydowne Road and Marcus Drive. When the 105,000 square foot lot is developed, the city will require the developer to build another access road. It will stretch from the Chapters on the Kingsway up a steep hill to behind the movie theatre, where it will connect with Marcus Drive.

The city has recently received an application to develop the land immediately west of the three lots, which could amount to up to 500,000 more square feet of commercial space in the area.

The Marcus Drive area promises to be one of two main hubs for commercial development in Sudbury. The other is located in the city's south end, where a second Wal-Mart is being built and the Southridge Mall has received a conditional approval to double its size.

Work is continuing despite the economic climate souring during the planning phase. The developers started to get work underway during the boom when nickel prices were at record highs, but have remained committed to finishing what they started, despite hundreds of layoffs at three of Sudbury's top five employers in Vale Inco, Xstrata and the Sudbury Regional Hospital.

Building has not followed employment with a similar downturn in Sudbury. As of June 1, the City of Greater Sudbury issued $103 million worth of building permits. At this time last year, the city had issued $106 million in permits.