2 hhgregg stores due by Thanksgiving

Work has begun to transform two former Circuit City stores in the Richmond area into locations for consumer-electronics and appliance retailer hhgregg.

Indianapolis-based hhgregg will open two stores by Thanksgiving, and a third store is in the works. These will be the retailer's first locations in Virginia.

The chain will take over former Circuit City locations near Short Pump Town Center, Chesterfield Towne Center and The Shops at White Oak Village.

A company spokeswoman yesterday would say only that two stores would open by Thanksgiving but declined to say where.

But EDC, a Chesterfield County-based general contracting and construction-management firm that specializes in retail projects, is working now to get the Short Pump and Chesterfield locations ready for hhgregg by November. EDC also expects to begin work soon on the White Oak Village store in eastern Henrico County, but a start date has not been set.

"We are demolishing and gutting the interiors of these [Short Pump and Chesterfield] stores and getting the buildings ready per hhgregg's prototype," said Jeff Duffy, EDC's vice president. "We're waiting on them for the White Oak store."

The store near Chesterfield Towne Center will get the biggest makeover, he said. It will get a bigger loading dock -- to accommodate three trucks, compared with one now -- and the exterior front will look different to match hhgregg's prototype.

The stockroom at that store also will serve as a regional warehouse for hhgregg's Richmond-area operations. The 43,500-square-foot store, at the southeast corner of Huguenot Road and West Koger Center Boulevard, was about 30 percent larger than any of Circuit City's other stores in the area.

Henrico-based Circuit City, once the nation's second-largest consumer-electronics chain, closed its last stores in March.

Besides opening stores in the Richmond market, hhgregg plans to add multiple stores this year in Tampa, Fla., and Memphis, Tenn. -- both markets where Circuit City formerly had a strong presence.

The chain sells electronics and appliances by using a commissioned sales staff.

Contact Gregory J. Gilligan at (804) 649-6379 or .