D&B Supply commits to Kuna

Farmers and gardeners in Kuna will no longer have to commute to Nampa or Caldwell for their D&B Supply needs.

D&B Supply plans to build its first Kuna store at Meridian and Deer Flat roads, the city’s most prominent retail hub. The 40,000-square-foot D&B will be across Meridian Road from Ridley’s Family Market, Ace Hardware, Idaho Central Credit Union, Bi-Mart, Tractor Supply, Dollar Tree, Taco Bell, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Smoky Mountain Pizzeria Grill.

Construction is scheduled to start around the beginning of November with an opening expected in August or September 2019, D&B Supply President and CEO Mark Schmitt said.

Kuna will be only the third of 15 D&B Supply stores built from the ground up since the company was founded in Caldwell in 1959. D&B has otherwise expanded into existing space. It will be among the three largest stores, along with Nampa and Meridian.

“The Boise-Meridian (metropolitan) area is one of the fastest growing in the country,” Schmitt said. “A big part of that is what’s happening in Kuna.”

Kuna’s population has swelled from 15,960 in 2013 to 20,740 in 2018, a 30-percent gain in five years, according to Community Planning Organization of Southwest Idaho population estimates.

Kuna has some 25 housing developments under construction, with 401 building permits issued in 2017 and 476 building permits issued through July 2018, according to Lisa Holland, Kuna’s economic development director.

“Kuna in particular has seen rapid housing growth,” Holland said. “The city is really ripe for economic development. The city’s priority is bringing in good employment and good commercial activity.”

Until now, all the commercial development has been at the southwest corner of Deer Flat and Meridian roads. D&B Supply is the first project announced for the southeast corner, where nine commercial pads are part of The Ashton Estates development, which will include 133 homes, according to Holland.

Originally started to serve farmers with 30 to 300 acres, D&B Supply continues to serve ranchers and farmers, but now also embraces backyard and porch gardeners, Schmitt said.

D&B has stores in nearly all the substantial population centers between Pendleton and Twin Falls. D&B opened its 12^th store in Boise at Overland and Cole in 2012 after about a decade with no expansion. The 13^th store followed in Emmett in 2015, and the most recent at a former Hastings Entertainment store on Boise’s southeast side in November 2017.

D&B also has stores in Mountain Home, Jerome, Garden City, La Grande, Baker City and Ontario.

“We’ve been fortunate to have a relationship with people in Kuna for a long time.” Schmitt said. “Now people in Kuna won’t have to go to Nampa or Caldwell to shop at D&B.”

Larson Architects of Garden City is the architect. RRC Contractors of Nampa is the general contractor.

Schmitt said he does not have a 16^th store in mind yet. Along with opening new stores in recent years, the company is also focused on remodeling numerous stores.