The building owner is Lester M. Entin Associates of Clifton, NJ. The owner of the company did not return a Thursday phone call seeking comment. Home Depot spokesman John Simley tells GlobeSt.com there is no signed agreement between the two companies, but that if an agreement is signed, the plan would be to start remodeling the building next spring and open the design store a year later. The store would occupy about 80,000 sf of the building; a complementary retailer likely would fill the remaining space.

According to public records, the current assessed value of the property is $12.5 million. Lester M. Entin Associates acquired the building in 1991 from Westwood Holding Corp. for $8.2 million. That same year, Home Depot opened its first Expo Design Center in San Diego. As of the end of June 2003, there were 54 Expo Design stores in 15 states, including 14 in California.

Expo stores are set up as a series of showrooms, each featuring full-room scenes from different parts of a house at different price levels. The Expo stores offer expert advice and professional design and construction services for full-scale projects.