Jo-Ann Fabric to ML

MOSES LAKE - National retailer Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores is looking to open a Moses Lake location within this next year.

A company spokesperson recently confirmed that they plan on opening a new Jo-Ann store in Moses Lake in late 2014. Jo-Ann operates close to 800 stores in 49 states, as well as an online storefront, according to information on the company's website.

Jo-Ann is headquartered in Hudson, Ohio, with a distribution center there as well as in Visalia, Calif. and Opelika, Ala.

The company employs more than 23,000 employees nationwide.

As of press time, company officials declined to share more details about the new Moses Lake store, including the location.

However, job postings for positions at the Moses Lake store appear on the retailer's website. Four management positions were posted late last week, for a Jo-Ann store at "1020 Stratfod Rd."

The former Kmart building is located at 1020 Stratford Road in Moses Lake. The ASPI Group has been working to turn that building into three or four storefronts since last August.

Construction on what will be called the Moses Lake Town Center is for the most part done, said Kim Foster of ASPI Group. The exterior of the building needs to be painted and the interior space needs to be divided up to fit whichever retailers move in, he said.

Foster was not able to confirm if Jo-Ann is one of the retailers that will occupy a space in the new town center, as no official lease agreements have been executed for any of the storefronts.

"Until actual leases are signed, we aren't allowed to say anything," he said. "Retailers can say what they want to on their side, but we can't."

Foster did say however, that ASPI Group was very close to executing formal leases with a couple of retailers.

"We have several deals working their way through the process, and we should have final leases signed here very shortly," he said.

The process of executing a lease agreement with a retailer is a long, multi-step process, said Foster. The first step involves finding the right mix of tenants for the building, as most companies already know which stores they want to be located next to and which stores they don't, he said.

Once a core group of tenants is found, then ASPI Group begins negotiating deal terms for a specific space. Potential tenants bring the terms back to their corporations for approval, said Foster.

"That part takes a while, but once they approve the expansion we can negotiate and execute a formal lease document," he said. "Once the lease document has been executed, then construction begins."

Foster said ASPI Group is near the lease execution stage with some retailers and at the terms negotiation stage with others.