Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 6, 1994                   TAG: 9408090024
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                  LENGTH: Medium

HEIRONIMUS STORE SET FOR BIG DAY

A proposed Wades supermarket between Kmart and Heironimus, however, apparently remains in a holding pattern.

Heironimus employees are gearing up for the second-biggest sales day today for the business in the New River Valley. The biggest was the first day of the closing sale at the 23,000-square-foot location the store is leaving in University Mall in Blacksburg.

Store manager Tony Chaplinski said the new 40,000-square-foot store is ready to go, with final touches applied, the lights turned on and kinks worked out.

"We're complete. We could have the grand opening today," he said Friday.

Indeed, the store has been open to customers for several days. Management wanted to make sure that such things as the phones and cash registers worked.

Lowe's officials expect to take control of their new 120,000-square-foot building in November, with an as-yet-unscheduled opening in early 1995, said Cinny Haynes, a spokeswoman at Lowe's corporate headquarters in North Wilkesboro, N.C.

The new store is more than four times larger than the 26,000-square-foot store on North Franklin Street. That store will close when the new one opens.

The new store will feature 85,000 square feet of retail space and a 30,000-square-foot lawn and garden center that will include a greenhouse.

Wades announced in April 1993 that it would put a new grocery store on the site next to Heironimus. But since that time little work has been done.

Wades officials were unavailable for comment Friday.