MOULTRIE — Lowe’s announced Wednesday plans to move forward with a new store project for Moultrie.

The new Lowe’s will be located at the northwest corner of Veterans Parkway and Doc Darbyshire Road. Lowe’s expects to begin construction in July, and the store is expected to open in the first quarter of 2005.

The state-of-the art Moultrie store represents an approximate $12 million investment in the community and will create about 120 new jobs, a company spokesman said. The home improvement warehouse store will have 94,000 square feet of retail sales space. An adjacent garden center will offer an impressive selection of flowers, bushes, trees and garden supplies tailored to the Georgia climate and lifestyle.

Lowe’s competitor, Home Depot, has made no announcement about its intentions for property next to the Lowe’s site. Recently, Atlanta contractors Greenberg Farrow Architecture Engineering Development asked that the 15-acre site at the intersection of the Veterans Parkway and Adel Highway be annexed into the city and rezoned for commercial use on behalf of the landowners and Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. The matter has not yet come before the city council.

Lowe’s opened its first store in Georgia in 1968. There are currently 45 Lowe’s stores in Georgia with additional stores under construction in Cornelia, Hinesville and Sandy Springs. The company employs more than 7,200 people in the state.

With fiscal year 2003 sales of $30.8 billion, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. is a Fortune 50 company that serves about 10 million customers a week at more than 975 home improvement stores in 45 states. In 2004, Fortune named the company America’s Most Admired Specialty Retailer for a second consecutive year. Based in Mooresville, N.C., the 58-year old company is the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world.