New Home Depot in East Pasadena Sees Plenty of Opening Day Customers

The new 13,580-square-foot Home Depot in East Pasadena at 2881 East Walnut Street officially opened bright and early Thursday morning at 6 a.m. and by mid-morning, the parking lot was full.

The store is located at the site of a former Avon distribution warehouse on Foothill Boulevard, but the store’s access is from the south.

Operations Manager Daniel Speed said Thursday afternoon that “things are going really well, and people are really happy.”

Speed also said that he had been getting comments from the community saying that they were “glad the store was there.”

By mid-afternoon, approximately 200 customers were in the store and on the store property.

Like other businesses, the store was practicing social distancing and limited capacity.

A Home Depot statement said the new store “features an optimized, more flexible checkout and customer service area, specialty showroom, the latest displays and amazing new storage areas for our customers’ Buy Online Pickup In Store orders.”

The new store aims to end up hiring between 275 and 300 employees, according to a March 9 news release. “Just over 200 associates” will be new to the company.

.@HomeDepot welcomes more than 200 new associates at @6037Hd who are ready and excited to serve our customers in the beautiful City of Pasadena. Thank you Councilmembers Masuda & Kennedy, and @roseparade President and Chairman Dr. Bob Miller for joining us at the grand opening! pic.twitter.com/Sqc0Ytdk27

— The Home Depot Government Relations (@HomeDepotGR) March 11, 2021

The current store development represents what City Planning Director David Reyes described in 2018 as “a long process of evolution.”

The first plans, as originally envisioned in November of 2016, saw the project as an expansive, multi-level development that would include a Home Depot store, and a Costco, as well as office buildings and residential areas, said Reyes.

“They wanted to knock everything down and build, but the City said ‘no’,” said Reyes.

“Home Depot listened slowly,” Reyes told the City Council in 2018. According to Reyes, the original design of the Avon building was not configured for a Home Depot store, meaning more and more re-designs from Home Depot.

Responding to a series of community meetings, and after at least two more design attempts, Home Depot said in 2018 it would eliminate the residential component of the project, as well as any multi-use. The new site would also reconfigure parking areas.

“This is a low-scale development,” said Reyes of the latest design.

Home Depot used the existing Avon Buildings for the new design, and added three significant traffic improvements—new medians and restriping on Foothill Boulevard,  as well as a modification of the traffic signal, restriping and a dedicated entrance on Walnut, along with a reconstruction of the eastern portion of Sierra Grande.

The store is currently hiring. Those interested may apply in person at the store or by visiting careers.homedepot.com.