The new Lowe's Home Improvement Center in Lehighton will open for business at 6 a.m. Friday, Sept. 23.

Store officials said the grand opening will be conducted on Sept. 29.The new store is located along Route 443 across from Carbon Plaza Mall.It was built on the site of the former Wal-Mart, which has built a new Supercenter about a half mile away, also along Route 443.This is Carbon County's first Lowe's store. Other stores are located in Hazleton, Pottsville, and Whitehall. It will create about 125 jobs.The grand opening occurs at 10 a.m. on Sept. 29 with a board-cutting ceremony.A promotional gift card match day will be held, during which if you purchase a gift card on Thursday, Lowe's will match purchases up to $5,000 to support the Hazelton Area Habitat for Humanity's next building project.On Saturday, Oct. 1, the store will feature the Tic Tac Toe board Build & Grow project. Lowe's conducts Build and Grow clinics bi-weekly as a way for parents and adult mentors to spend quality time with their childrenfree of charge.The clinics are recommended for children in grades 2 to 5, and each clinic provides hands-on instruction to approximately 50 children.To sign-up for the bi-weekly Build and Grow workshops, visit lowesbuildandgrow.com.The Mahoning Lowe's has 103,000 square feet of retail sales space, with an adjacent garden center, stocking 40,000 different items to help customers build, improve and beautify their homes.A Lowe's spokesman said a store of this size represents an average investment in the community of more than $16.5 million.The site on which Lowe's was built had been a Wal-Mart from 1994 until Oct. 26, 2010 when it closed. The new Wal-Mart opening the following day.In July 2004, Lowe's purchased the 12.6 acres site from Wal-Mart for $4 million. From August 2004 until the store closed, Wal-Mart rented the site from Lowe's with an agreement that Lowe's wouldn't build its new store until the new Wal-Mart was completed.