Kohl’s outlined some of their short-term growth plans at last week’s shareholder conference in Wisconsin. Projections are for 115 stores to open up in the next year and more variety within the store footprint. Reports indicate that they will open up more multi-level stores and more stores that are 20,000 square feet smaller than their traditional footprint.

Realizing that one size doesn’t always fit all, the three footprints allow the retailer to compete in a variety of markets. While their traditional, 88,000 square foot layout has done them very well up until this point, with the amount of growth that they project, the larger, multi-level format allows them to get a better foothold into urban areas while the smaller, 68,000 square foot store allows them to extend their brand into lower volume areas. They experimented with these layouts in 2006, opening a nearly 150,000 square foot store in a former Macy’s in Jersey City and opening up a few dozen of the smaller layout throughout the country.

With the amount of former Mervyn’s locations that Kohl’s is projected to take over, expect a lot more of the larger, multi-level stores opening in strategically attatched mall locations.

Unclear if the 115 store number is simply the number of stores that are opening in October, or if that includes early 2008 openings as well.

More from Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal, Reuters and AZCentral

On Sunday’s, I would like to share photos of new retail developments taken by readers. If you have any photos you would like to share, please send them to photos@bigboxwatch.com. If you have any additional information that may be interesting about the development, please share it.

This week, I’m sharing some photos of the Kohl’s that is being constructed in Old Bridge, NJ (more info here). The site is a former K-Mart which closed in 2002 when the retailer closed 284 of their stores.

First up is a Google Map satellite view of the location as a K-Mart:

The old K-Mart facade is being demolished:

And the old Garden Center has been dismantled. No idea if Kohl’s plans on knocking down the exterior wall and expanding the building:

Building is opening in October. The development they are located has a Staples and a Pathmark, with smaller retailers in between. There’s a BJs Wholesale Club, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot all located close by.

JCPenney held a two day analyst meeting where they outlined some of their long term growth plans for 2007-2011. Some of the development highlights that they’ve outlined:

- 250 new stores opening in this period with the majority of them being in the new, off the mall format

- 300 stores being rennovated by 2011

- announcing that they’ve signed a plan to open a 125-150,000 square foot store in the redeveloped Manhattan Mall in Midtown Manhattan. Located at 33rd and 6th Ave, this mall has huge foot traffic and is right across the street from Macy’s flagship Herald Square location. Location is expected to open in 2008 or early 2009.

JCPenney has an aggressive growth plan outlined for this time period. Coupled with the rapid expansion of Kohl’s (previously announced growth plans of 500 new stores opening in the period of 2006-2011), it looks like there is tremendous room to grow within the mid-tier department store sector.

More information from TradingMarkets.com (see: J. C. Penney Lifts Q1 Guidance; Plans To Open 250 New Stores In Five Years - Update) and Forbes (see: J.C. Penney Co. raises profit forecast, will open Manhattan store 1 block from Macy’s)

The Kohl’s Career website has a few open positions in cities where they currently don’t have stores. I can’t find anything in local newspapers about Kohl’s opening up in these towns this year, so is this the start of a list of openings for 2008?

Massachusetts - Boston Metro West (could a store be coming to Cambridge or Newton?)
New Jersey - Edison & Short Hills
New York - Huntington (Long Island)

Here at Big Box Watch, we have already plotted the locations of almost 30 new Kohl’s stores that are currently in development. With Kohl’s opening an estimated 100 stores this fall, could these locations still be in the pipeline for 2007?