NEW YORK -- Home Depot has opened a second showcase store in Manhattan that mimics features of an earlier New York City location, offers unique elements to serve a home decorator audience and adapts store layout to cope with its unique site.

With a greater emphasis on service, clinics for potential DIYers, home decorating and convenience categories such as cleaning, the Manhattan Home Depots are tailored to their environment, but they also are learning labs in their own right. "We can take the concept and adapt and evolve it to any of our urban markets and our non-urban markets as well," John Farugia, regional vp, mid-Atlantic operations, told DSN Retailing Today. "A lot of the elements that we have here we can use from a go-forward standpoint."

Home Depot is taking lessons learned in its various urban stores, such as those in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Chicago's Lincoln Park, and developing new variations on its format appropriate to various circumstances. In some instances a standard store may not be right, but one of its Expo Design Centers might not be appropriate either. The new Home Depot, located on 59th Street and Third Avenue, has many of the same features and amenities that the retailer debuted at its first store in Manhattan, which operates on 23rd Street, including a doorman and a concierge desk. Yet differences are apparent. For one thing, the store customizes services to meet the needs of interior designers, for whom the neigborhood is nicknamed Designers' Row.

When customers walk into the new 59th Street Home Depot, they'll be met with an "urban theater" scene featuring two actors posing as a young, apartment-dwelling couple. Surrounded by a lit mural of the Manhattan skyline, the couple will perform a series of home renovation projects--plastering, painting and installing wood floors--on their one-bedroom, pre-war-style apartment.

The urban theater is one of many distinctions for the 108,000-square-foot store. "The new 59th Street store embodies the spirit of Manhattan and is designed to inspire our customers by helping them see the potential to improve their urban spaces," said Tom Taylor, Home Depot Eastern division president.

This "potential" includes Dinovo custom cabinetry imported from Italy, a product line not carried by any other Home Depot. The high-end cabinets promise to turn any brownstone's cooking area into a gourmet chef's dream--for a large coin. Dinovo kitchens range between $35,000 and $500,000.

Home Depot is still a newcomer to Manhattan, having opened its first store here Sept. 8. But that 105,000-square-foot, multi-storied building already has exceeded the company's expectations. "Even with the success of the 23rd Street store under our belt, it is important that we continue to innovate our stores and bring our products to life in new and exciting ways," Taylor said.

Home Depot introduced its gargantuan motorized "spider" racking system for large area rugs in its first Manhattan store. But two spiders are better than one in the ease of 59th Street. The paint department here has been bulked up as well. A total of 11 mixers are in place to send customers home with any of a possible 3,260 color options, provided by Glidden, Behr and Disney Color by Behr.

The store has the look and feel of a roller coaster, where customers descend to a mezzanine level that houses large appliances, kitchens and high-end baths. From there, a second staircase dips down to a racetrack layout and spins shoppers around the retailer's core assortment: tools, hardware, cleaning products, paints, faucets, storage, green goods and a locksmith who is on-call 24 hours a day.

Hurried Manhattanites can hit the streets quickly with their purchases at any of the 29 checkout stations (including six self-checkouts), before riding an elevator back to street level. Recognizing that time is money, especially in New York, Home Depot installed point-of-sale stations throughout the store. A total of 10 locations, in departments from decor to kitchens to flooring to lighting and at the pro desk, will accept credit cards and checks (but no cash) so customers can get in and out in a New York minute.

Like the 23rd Street store, this location will feature green goods, same-day delivery service, a concierge desk at its entrance, doormen hailing cabs and live clinics that will be simulcast throughout the store from an on-site studio. In fact, clinics at both Manhattan stores will be synchronized to the same project and times.