Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Electronics chain eyes Roanoke site
Hhgregg is considering opening a store in the former Valley View Circuit City location.
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The former location of a Circuit City may become home to another electronics retailer.
A spokesman for Hhgregg, an Indiana-based chain (pronounced H.H. Gregg), said Monday that the retailer is making plans to open a store inside the former Circuit City space adjacent to Valley View Mall in Roanoke.
Still, a lease for this 33,500-square-foot storefront, beside Dick's Sporting Goods, has not yet been signed, said Jeff Pearson, an Hhgregg spokesman. He expects that to happen in the next few weeks, with a goal of opening the store in the spring of 2010.
The new store would hire 40 to 50 employees, he said.
Hhgregg, a retailer of electronics, appliances and mattresses, has been taking over vacant Circuit City locations in Florida, Tennessee and Richmond, Pearson said. Circuit City closed its stores nationwide earlier this year and shuttered its Richmond-based operations because of financial difficulties.
Hhgregg opened two new stores in Richmond this month, the retailer's first in Virginia. The retail company chose Roanoke for a new store because this market is "similar to Richmond and the Carolinas where we currently operate stores and have been successful," Pearson wrote in an e-mail.
The company has 128 stores mostly in Southeastern states, such as Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Still, Hhgregg is making a push to extend its reach. Aside from Roanoke, it is considering new stores in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., Pearson said.
