A young Seattle-based furniture retailer has agreed to buy a former Heilig-Meyers Co. building in Spokane Valley and plans to open its first Spokane-area store there later this month.


The company, which does business as Furniture Supercenter and is incorporated as Furniture Superstore Inc., expects to complete the transaction this week, says company Vice President Kevin Hughes. He declines to disclose the terms of the transaction involving the 38,000-square-foot building, which is located at 5605 E. Sprague in a parking lot near a Costco Wholesale Corp. store.


The new Furniture Supercenter store will employ about a dozen people to start, he says. Its merchandise mix will include all types of furniture, with most lines in the middle price ranges.


The store will be Furniture Superstores second. The company opened its first store in Bend, Ore., about two years ago.


Furniture Superstore doesnt have immediate plans to open more stores, but is looking at locations on Spokanes North Side for possible expansion, Hugh says.


Initially, Hughes says, the company began looking at the Spokane market with the intention of opening its first store here along North Division, but was attracted to the Valley buildings location.


Being between Costco and Home Depot, Hughes says, The flow of traffic across our parking lot is unbelievable.


Jim Quigley, of Kiemle & Hagood Co., and Dave Black, of Tomlinson Black Commercial Inc., are handling the transaction.


The building has been vacant for about two years. Heilig-Meyers developed the Valley building and opened a store there in 1999, but one year later the Richmond, Va.-based furniture retailer closed that outlet and its other Spokane store after it filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.


Flahertys 99-Cent Store, of Spokane, opened an outlet in part of that building in 2001, but that company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in 2002 and closed all of its stores.