BUSINESS MEMO: K's MERCHANDISE EXPANDS

K's Merchandise has signed a lease on one of the vacated Venture Store buildings in Champaign, Ill.

Don Ouellette, K's Merchandise vice president of merchandising, said the 80,000-square-foot building adjacent to Market Place Mall would provide almost triple the selling space and merchandise categories offered at Champaign.

K's opened a Champaign store in the early 1970s and revamped it in 1989.

K's, founded by Ray Eldridge Sr., and his wife, Vernice, in 1957, is still a family-owned retailer and has expanded to 16 stores in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri, including a store at Cape Girardeau.