JENKINS TWP. – On Monday it would have been hard to hear Larry Stone inside the new Lowe’s distribution center.

The president and chief operating officer of the home improvement retailer visited the 1.5 million square-foot center Friday in the CenterPoint Commerce & Trade Park.

The fleet of forklifts sat silent in parking spots and not a roller or belt turned in the 6.2 miles of conveyor system as some of the center’s 400 workers took a break for the grand opening of the company’s 14th distribution center.

“It looks, feels and operates just like our other ones,” Stone said after greeting employees and local dignitaries near the front of the building big enough to contain 31 football fields. The company has another 10-year-old distribution center in Pottsville.

Stone acknowledged the slumping economy delayed the opening by about eight months and economic incentives from the state and other government bodies were influential in locating in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The state provided $3.9 million in incentives and Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services received tax breaks from Luzerne County, Pittston and Jenkins townships and the Pittston Area School District to develop the park.

Lowe’s, based in Mooresville, N.C., spends a tremendous amount of time researching markets, Stone said, adding that the company “looks forward to a lot of great years” in the community and “a lot of growth” for the business.

The distribution center, built at a cost of nearly $111 million, will serve stores in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. The new center will contain millions more worth of inventory, handling more than 32,000 items big and small, from hand tools to refrigerators.

The center will operate on an in-and out-principle. On one side, tractor-trailers back up to any of the hundreds of doors and unload their cargo of pallets and boxes. Workers sort and stock the goods among the rows of racks, some reaching six tiers or more than 40 feet high. As stores sell lamps, circular saws or toilets, they will order them from the distribution center. Workers will pick the items from the shelves and place them on the conveyor system that moves them to the other side of the building where tractor trailers wait to be loaded for delivery.

The appliances are too big to be put on the racks and have their own stacking area in the rear of the building on the receiving side. That’s where Mike Sofchak works.

The 30-year-old Sofchak was hired in November and was named employee of the month in December. With the news of how poorly the economy is doing and the ever growing number of people being laid off, Sofchak said he’s glad to be among the working. “It’s comfortable that you know you have a job,” he said. Plus, his commute is short from Avoca. “I don’t have to travel far.”