Walkers Furniture, a Spokane-based furniture chain, plans to open a store in Yakima, Wash., in August, is considering opening a store in southeast Washington, and plans to move its Spokane Valley store to a new location later this year.


Meanwhile, Walkers recently completed a move of its clearance store from the Spokane Valley to North Division, says Gary Absalonson, a minority partner and general manager of the furniture-store chain.


Walkers new Yakima store will be in a leased building there at 1422 S. First St., which is between the downtown area and the Union Gap Mall. The Spokane chain plans to hire about 12 employees for the new store.


Walkers had operated a store in Yakima before, from 1984 to 1998, but left that market because it began focusing its Central Washington efforts on its Wenatchee store and didnt like its location in Yakima, says Absalonson.


This is a better location than before, he says. Weve always planned on going back there.


Absalonson says its too early to disclose details about a possible new store in southeast Washington because lease negotiations for a store there are ongoing. He declines to say what city Walkers is eyeing for the new store. He says the agreement is close to being completed, and that the new store would open by November.


Walkers plans to move its store at 10619 E. Sprague elsewhere in the Spokane Valley, but Absalonson declines to disclose the new location until the company has secured a site.


We hope to be in a new location, which will be farther east of the current one, by November or December, he says.


Early last month, the chain moved its clearance center, which has been located at 5320 E. Sprague, to a leased 9,500-square-foot building at 4402 N. Division that most recently housed a call center for Legacy Auto Glass, Absalonson says.


Absalonson says the move was intended to give the clearance center better visibility.


North Division is just a great road, he says. We feel this is a better location for us.


Walkers spent about $15,000 remodeling the building for its use, Absalonson says.


We ripped out miles and miles of cable, and turned it into a furniture store, he says. It was quite a project.


In April, Walkers consolidated three distribution centers here into one larger location at 2611 N. Woodruff, in Spokane Valley.


The new distribution center has freed up our capacity to flow more merchandise to stores, Absalonson says. We feel blessed that we have merchandise that people want. Its a niche, and we feel we can open stores in other cities and be successful.


Walkers currently operates six stores, including three in the Spokane area and one each in Coeur dAlene, Kennewick, and Wenatchee. It serves all those stores from its distribution center here.