VIRGINIA BEACH, VA: Best Buy Company, a fast-growing national electronics superstore, is set for expansion in Virginia. Specializing in name-brand home appliances, computers, and entertainment software, Best Buy currently operates 317 retail stores, seven of them in Northern Virginia. The stores average 45,500 square feet and employ about 150 people. The Best Buy format offers the wares of several types of specialty stores: home office products, personal computer products, home electronics and appliances. This "all things in one stop" design appeals to busy shoppers. Six hundred stores nation-wide are slated to be open by 2004.

 In the first half of 1999, Best Buy bought or leased five new sites in Virginia. Retail stores are scheduled to open in Chesapeake, Richmond, Roanoke, and Virginia Beach, according to Gerald S. Divaris, chairman/ceo of Divaris Real Estate, which represented Best Buy in the negotiations with Abe Wolf of Buyers Realty, national broker for Best Buy. 

In January, Divaris finalized the lease of an end cap location in Chesapeake's Greenbrier MarketPlace. Greenbrier hosts several other major retail stores, including Harris Teeter, Barnes & Noble, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Best Buy opened its Chesapeake store in July. 

On February 8, Divaris' Ed Jennings of its Richmond office, announced Best Buy's purchase of 9.7 acres in Henrico County, west of downtown Richmond at Broad Street and Brookhollow. A 45,000 square-foot Best Buy store is being built on this site. Three months later, a second building site was leased in Richmond, this time in the Chesterfield Plaza on Koger Center Boulevard, where a 46,700 square foot building is being constructed. 

In March, Best Buy purchased land in Roanoke. Ed Jennings of Divaris Real Estate's Richmond office represented Best Buy in negotiations for 4.653 acres adjacent to Target and Staples at Valley View Crossing. A 45,000 square foot store is being built on this site. Scheduled to open in October, it will be the first Best Buy store in Western Virginia. 

Divaris Real Estate has been a main supporter of Virginia Beach's plans to create its own city center -- an "uptown" business district in the Pembroke area. On April 16, Gerald Divaris closed a deal that was close to his heart: Best Buy's purchase of a 4.8578 acre Pembroke site formerly occupied by Best Products. The building, at 217 South Independence, is well-positioned at the southwest corner of the Pembroke quadrangle at the Independence Boulevard, I-264 interchange. It sold for $5,000,000. It is being redeveloped into a 45,000 square-foot Best Buy store and will open in September. 

"We improve people's lives by making technology and entertainment products affordable and easy to use," says Richard M. Schulze, Best Buy's founder and chief executive officer. Schulze started Best Buy in 1983, when he opened an 18,000 square-foot outlet in Burnsville, Minnesota. 

The way he tells it, his earliest retail venture, an audio hobby shop called Sound of Music, was hit by a tornado. Everything was destroyed but the storeroom. So Schulze held a parking lot sale, which turned out to be a big money maker. That's how he discovered the marketing formula for Best Buy, where a wide range of name brands are set out for customers who want to make their own choices. It is, he says, the first tornado-inspired superstore. 

Best Buy's format puts all the products on the sales floor, inviting consumers to compare and contrast products themselves. It offers an assortment of name brands at fair prices; provides product information; emphasizes customer choice; and offers a full range of services, including repair, software training, installation of car audio systems, and home delivery. Best Buy also offers products online, specializing in DVD movies and music CDs. 

Now based in Minneapolis, Best Buy Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and ranks 199 on the Fortune 500 list. "We value the consumer, the employee, and the community," a company spokeswoman said. It shows. Recently Computerworld Magazine listed Best Buy Company among the best 100 Internet Technology workplaces. 

In May, Best Buy was recognized by General Colin Powell as the largest corporate supporter of America's Promise, a not-for-profit scholarship foundation, "Dollars for Scholars." "Best Buy will continue to lead the industry in offering affordable technology to our customers," said Best Buy president Brad Anderson. "Best Buy's consumer retail expertise, national presence and inventory assortment provides us the formula for a successful rollout." 

Best Buy's national real estate representative, Abe Wolf of Buyer's Realty appointed Divaris Real Estate to represent Best Buy in Virginia. A close working relationship has resulted in leasing prime sites in key markets. Fill-in stores will follow the initial openings.