Best Buy Co., the giant Minneapolis-based electronics retailer, plans to open a store in Coeur dAlene.


Site work for the $3.5 million store at 425 Wilbur Ave. started last month, and the store is scheduled to open early next year, says Best Buy spokesman Jay Musolf. The 20,000-square-foot store will be located on a two-acre site, will be accessible from U.S. 95, and will have about 120 parking spaces.


The Coeur dAlene store will employ about 90 people, says Musolf.


Parkwood Business Properties, of Coeur dAlene, is developing the project and will lease the building to Best Buy.


Were really excited about Best Buy because we feel its a great addition to the community, says Ryan Nipp, the head of marketing and leasing at Parkwood Business Properties. Coeur dAlene needed a Best Buy.


Parkwood Business Properties is owned by Steve Meyer and Charlie Nipp, who is Ryan Nipps father. The company owns an 88,000-square-foot retail center called Silverlake at 95, which is just south of the future Best Buy location. T.J. Maxx Inc., Petco Animal Supplies Inc., Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., and Borders Books & Music Inc., all have stores in that retail center, which was built about two years ago.


The Coeur dAlene store will be the first Best Buy outlet in North Idaho. The chain has about 750 retail stores in the U.S. and Canada, including two in the Spokane area at Northpointe Plaza and the Spokane Valley Mall.


The Coeur dAlene store will be more convenient for residents in that area who have to travel for 30 or 40 minutes to get to one of our Spokane stores, Musolf says.


Best Buy sells consumer electronics such as TVs, stereos, CDs, DVDs, computers, entertainment software, and appliances.


In its 2004 fiscal year ended in February, Best Buy says it had revenues of $24.5 billion, up 17 percent from the previous fiscal year.


A Florida-based construction company plans to begin constructing the Coeur dAlene store this month, Nipp says. Contractors Northwest Inc., of Coeur dAlene, is doing the site-preparation work.