Harbor Freight Tools coming to Paul’s location in Iowa City

IOWA CITY - Harbor Freight Tools, a discount tools company, will open in the former Paul's Discount Store location on Highway 1 West, which closed earlier this year.

Feb. 13 is the estimated grand opening date of the new store, according to an email from a spokesperson.

Harbor Freight, which also has a Cedar Rapids location on Williams Boulevard, likely will be joined by eight to nine other businesses within the Paul's footprint next year.

Harbor Freight will take up about 16,000 square feet of the 36,000-square-foot building, said Realtor Ryan O'Leary, who is overseeing the property.

He said there's physically space for 12 other tenants but some businesses might take up more floor space than others.

'We could've filled the building by now, but we're trying to make sure that we're getting the right tenant mix in,” O'Leary said, adding that local or regional businesses or those that offer similar products similar to Paul's - such as construction apparel and work boots - would be a plus.

O'Leary expects to have all the tenants identified by early March and opened by May or June.

The shift to smaller units comes amid a changing market. Paul's owners, the Cassidy family, decided not to renew their lease because of competition from national chains such as Target and Walmart as well as the growth in online shopping.

Paul's opened in 1981.

Harbor Freight, headquartered in Calabasas, Calif., has more than 1,000 locations across the country and first opened in 1977. The company purchases its merchandise directly from factories and sells 7,000 tools and accessories, according to its website.

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