FURNITURE, TOY STORES LOCATE HERE; HEILIG-MEYER AND TOYS R US TO SHARE

Toys R Us and Heilig-Meyers Furniture are coming to Cape Girardeau.

The two large retailers will be neighbors in the recently vacated 80,000-square-foot structure that housed Wal-Mart at 210 Silver Springs Road.

Toys R Us, which is looking toward opening for the Christmas shopping season, will occupy 30,000 square feet; Heilig-Meyers will occupy 25,000 square feet and hopes to be open in mid-September.

"That leaves about 25,000 square feet to be leased in the building," said Jim Stuckey of Wal-Mart, which is making leasing arrangements. "We do have some people looking at the remainder of the space, but currently it is available."

"Remodeling and renovations for Toys R Us should get under way next week," said Michael Miller of the firm's real estate division.

The toy company, headquartered in Paramus, N.J., has about 500 Toys R Us toy stores and 180 Kids R Us clothing stores in the U.S.

"We want to be open for the Christmas market," said Miller. "Realistically, we could be open much earlier if everything goes smooth."

A Toys R Us store opened at Marion, Ill. in 1991 along the perimeter of the new Illinois Centre Mall near Interstate 55. The Cape Girardeau store also is on the perimeter of a large mall West Park Mall.

The firm also opened operations near Tokyo, Japan last winter and is looking to new operations this year in Austria and Portugal, said Larry Bouts, president of Toys R Us International Division.

The Toys R Us operations in Japan are 80 percent owned by the U.S. parent and 20 percent by the Japanese licensee of fast-food giant McDonald's Co., one of the few successful American retailers in Japan.

Toys R Us entered the international market in 1984 and has 126 toy stores outside the U.S. Last year the retailer added Spain to its list of overseas markets, joining Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.

During the fiscal year ended Feb. 2, 1991, non-U.S. sales represented 14.1 percent of the company's $5.5 billion in sales.

Helig-Meyers Furniture, headquartered in Richmond, Va., will occupy 25,000 square feet of the building.

"We'll start renovations soon," said Ed Helms, a senior vice president of the company. "We're looking at a mid-September opening."

Heilig-Meyers Furniture is the largest furniture chain listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

"We have a wide variety of furniture lines, including Broyhill and Bassett," said Helm.

Heilig-Meyers was founded in 1913 at Goldsboro, N.C.

"We'll be observing our 80th anniversary next year," said Helm.

The firm has more than 385 stores nationwide and has started moving more heavily into the Missouri market.

"We're also hoping to open new stores at Rolla and Farmington in mid-September," said Helms. "We also recently announced a 318,000-square-foot distribution center to be constructed at Moberly. Construction is already under way there.

"We're excited that Toys R Us will be our immediate neighbor in the Wal-Mart building," said Helms.