Lebanon gets discount department store

Department store jobs

Stage Stores plans to hire 35 to 40 employees in Lebanon.

Apply online at www.peebles.com

A Houston-based retailer plans to employ 30 to 40 workers and invest more than $750,000 in renovations on a vacant building in Lebanon.

Stage Stores is expected to open a Peebles department store on Nov. 6 in a former Kroger store at 1235 Columbus Ave.

Stage operates Peebles stores in Sidney, Wilmington, Hillsboro and Washington Courthouse, and a Goody’s in Greenville.

“We like to be 30 to 40 minutes away from the nearest shopping mall,” said Bria Lundy, the company’s director of public relations, events and community.

Stage picked the Lebanon location, despite closer competition, due to the demographics of 135,000 people living within 10 miles of the store, Lundy said.

“Lebanon shoppers deserve a hometown store that delivers exciting fashion brands and well-known national brands of clothes, shoes, fragrances, accessories and home decor,” Michael Glazer, president and CEO, said in a press release.

The stores carry name-brand merchandise at discount prices, including Estee Lauder, Clinique, Nike, Levi’s, Dockers, Carters, Jockey, Skechers, U.S. Polo Association and Nautica.

Building records indicate the company will invest $765,800 renovating about a third of the former Kroger, vacant since the store moved into a 110,000 square foot building north across the parking lot in 2006.

On Monday, workers were constructing a new entrance. The new Kroger, which sells retail goods in addition to groceries, is just north of the new Peebles location.

“It should be a good fit,” said Jason Millard, the city’s economic development director.

The Lebanon store and one opening in Ashtabula are among 20 stores Stage plans to open in 2014, Lundy said.

It would be Stage Stores’ 30th store in Ohio. The company reported sales of $1.6 Billion in fiscal year 2012 and more than 14,000 employees.

The company operates 850 stores under five different names in 40 states. Elsewhere in the U.S. the company operates as Stage, Bealls and Palais Royal.

“The southern part of Ohio and close to Indiana has the Goody’s. The rest of Ohio is mainly Peebles,” Lundy said.