Target Corp., the big Minneapolis-based discount retailer, has opened a district office in Spokane and is contemplating adding additional Target stores within the newly created district.


Linda Heinen, Targets district team leader here, says the Spokane office opened in April at 104 S. Freya, in the Tapio Center. It employs three people, and oversees a district that stretches from Wenatchee, Wash., to Billings, Mont. Heinen says the area previously was served by four Target district offices elsewhere, but Targets growth within the area prompted the company to open a district office here.


Heinen says part of her responsibility as a district team leader will be to scout out sites for new stores. In the Inland Northwest, Target currently has stores in the Spokane Valley, on Spokanes North Side, and in Coeur dAlene. Nationwide, the company operates nearly 1,000 stores.


Certainly our intention is that wed like to expand our market in Eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana, she says.


One candidate for a new store is Spokanes South Hill, says Heinen, who adds that Target often gets requests from customers to open a third Spokane store there.


Im hopeful that Spokane could take another store, but Im going to probably have to prove it can take another store, she says.


The company already has plans to open one new store next March in Kalispell, Mont., which is within the Spokane-based district, she says.


Heinen says another part of her job is directing the use of community-development funds that Target makes available to its district offices.


Probably the biggest focus (of district offices) is making sure were involved in our local communities, she says. When we opened this office, that brought us a significant amount of grant money to bring into the Spokane communityabout $100,000 that will be shared among all the Target stores in the district, she says.