Lumber One plans to open its first Little Rock location in the iHeart Radio Metroplex building at 10800 Colonel Glenn Rd.
The lumber business has retail locations in Mayflower and Stuttgart. It closed on the Little Rock property Nov. 22 and on a location for a new distribution center in Alexander last week. The center will be located at 11610 Vimy Ridge Rd. in Alexander. President Adam Wells said that Lumber One purchased the 10.45-acre Little Rock property for $4.6 million and the 9.5-acre Alexander property for $2.4 million.
“We’ve honestly been looking for a [Little Rock location] for a couple years,” he said. “The opportunity arose a month or so ago.” Wells said his team worked quickly to take advantage of the opportunity.
The iHeart Radio building was erected in the late 1980s, according to Wells. Originally built to be a Costco, the structure now houses offices, including those for 100.3 The Edge, a rock ‘n’ roll radio station. In its new life as a lumber retail location, those offices will have to go and the exterior of the building will be transformed. Wells said he had been in talks with the current tenants and that the Lumber One location might open up anytime in the next 15 months to two years.
This store will be the company’s largest retail location, at about 108,000 square feet, Wells said.
“We’re obviously extremely excited,” he said. “We’re in a growth mode.”
The Stuttgart location measures about 10,000 square feet, while the Mayflower retail space comes in at about 30,000 square feet. The Mayflower location also has a 60,000-square-foot outdoor lumber yard.
The Little Rock location will be the only Lumber One store with an indoor lumber yard. No other lumber supplier in the state has a drive-in indoor lumber yard, Wells said.
“We hope this is just the beginning of adding new locations in Central Arkansas,” he said.
The Alexander location already has office space and warehouses, but Lumber One will also build a full-service lumber yard behind those structures, Wells said.
In addition to lumber, the retailer sells building materials including concrete blocks, roofing, siding, windows and doors – anything that goes into building a house, Wells said. It also sells cabinets, flooring, lighting, tools and lawn mowers.
Photo courtesy of Adam Wells