Lowes on Friday opened a 138,000-square-foot home improvement store and garden center on 18 acres of vacant land sold off by the Mercury News last year.

“Unfortunately the newspaper business is not doing very well, but we hope that Lowes will do very well and maybe advertising in the newspaper will help the newspaper business out in that regard,” said Mayor Chuck Reed told KCBS Radio.

Meanwhile, the Merc is considering moving its business and editorial offices to another location in San Jose so it can sell more of its property at 880 and Brokaw Road. An Oct. 17, 2008 story in the Merc said Publisher Mac Tully had hired a broker to sell the paper’s headquarters. At the time, the Merc was considering moving about 400 of its employees to a new location and keep its printing presses and other post-production equipment on the current site.