GranTree Furniture, of Portland, has re-entered the Spokane market, opening a store at the northwest corner of Second Avenue and Bernard Street, and plans to open two more stores here within the next 12 months.


Once GranTree has opened three stores here, it then plans to look at the Tri-Cities and Coeur dAlene for sites for additional stores, says Bob Goff, manager of the new store here.


GranTree, which operated two stores here in the late 1980s, left the Spokane market in 1991 after the companys owner, Portland-based GranTree Corp., filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.


The furniture chain now is owned by Portland-based Value City Inc., which does business as GranTree Furniture. It operates five stores in the Portland area, he says.


GranTrees new owners have shifted the companys focus somewhat, Goff says. He says that before its reincarnation, GranTree offered furniture on a rent-to-own basis. Now it sells new and used furniture, mattresses, and consumer electronics. GranTree also buys used furniture from companies that had leased the inventory to corporations that equip and decorate apartments for employees who are living elsewhere during extended out-of-town assignments, he says. At the end of those assignments, the furniture and other rented accessories are returned to the rental company, which then sells some of that merchandise to retailers like GranTree.


GranTree is leasing about 20,000 square feet of space at 304 W. Second for its new store, which employs four people. The building previously had been occupied by Northwest Office Furniture Inc. About 12,000 square feet of the space is dedicated to the furniture stores showroom, while the remaining about 8,000 square feet is being used to store furniture, Goff says.