Orgill Inc., the Memphis, Tenn.-based hard-goods distribution company, has obtained building permits to construct improvements valued at $7.3 million at the former Kimball Office Inc. facility in Post Falls.

Orgill is installing material-handling systems and constructing a building addition as part of a renovation project at the former furniture factory at 1881 W. Seltice Way, in west Post Falls, says Justin Miller, Post Falls building official.

The improvements will add more than 25,000 square feet of space to the facility, bringing the total size of the building to about 500,000 square feet.

Kuecker Logistics Group, of Belton, Mo., is the contractor on the material-handling project, and Covina, Calif.-based Seizmic Inc. is the structural engineer.

Orgill spokeswoman Kristyl Lawson says, “We’re retrofitting the building and making it fit our needs. We’re a distributor, and (Kimball Office) was a manufacturer.”

Lawson says the project will include installing equipment and an inventory tracking and storage system.

“Now we’re getting racks and conveyers and everything inside the distribution center,” she says.

Orgill, which distributes most everything typically sold in retail hardware stores and bills itself as the world’s largest independent hardware distributor, plans to stock more than 90,000 parts from more than 3,000 manufacturers at the Post Falls facility, which will be the company’s seventh full-service distribution facility.

Orgill CEO Ron Beal has said that the Post Falls facility will be unique in that it will offer a complete range of products for Canadian retailers in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, as well as U.S. customers in the northwestern states of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and Alaska.

At an event held at the Post Falls site in September, Beal said the company plans to begin stocking inventory in December. Orgill plans to begin shipping products to Canadian retailers by February, he said, adding that the plant will be fully operational for U.S. customers by early spring.

Orgill bought the former Kimball Office facility in August for $12 million, and shortly afterward announced plans to hire 140 employees, invest a total of $30 million in the facility, and stock it with inventory valued at $50 million.

Lawson says Orgill is recruiting employees for the Post Falls plant.

The company recently has posted job listings for a warehouse department supervisor, data technicians, material handlers, delivery drivers, and a human resources assistant.

Jasper, Ind.-based Kimball Office closed the Post Falls plant last year. The furniture manufacturing plant had about 260 employees there when it announced in 2014 its plans to transfer the Post Falls production to other facilities.