The home accessories and entertainment product retailer has decided to increase the size of its distribution and warehouse facility from 500,000 sf to one million sf, an endeavor that is expected to cost $24 million. The expansion, however, represents just one facet of the company's news. Cost Plus will also buy the existing facility, which it has been leasing form GEM 460 Associates I LLC, for $26.5 million.

"The productivity levels we are seeing in our Virginia facility, combined with the promising sales growth we are experiencing in our Eastern US stores, caused us to accelerate our planned expansion," says Cost Plus CEO and president Murray Dashe. "With the addition of this capacity, we will abandon less productive temporary space we lease elsewhere on a short-term basis.