The 45.000-sf, two-story will open this summer in the Chelsea district at 60 West 23rdSt., company spokeswoman Connie Molby says. Best Buy is scouting additional sites in Manhattan and may open those stores in 2004.

The Chelsea store will be the second two-story store, with the first one being Best Buy in Cambridge, MA, which opened in 1998. Molby says more two-story stores in the works.

What's more, Best Buy determined that its 30,000-sf small-store format doesn't have to be just for small markets, which Best Buy defines as communities of 250,000 or less. The retailer has adapted its relatively new smaller-format store, which is one-third smaller than its normal outlet, to cramped urban markets such as New York.

"As we are expanding, we have leveraged the small store design to fit in urban markets," Mobly says. "The adaptations are mostly operational -- i.e., more cash registers. The product selection would be the same."

The two alternative formats will remain an option as Best Buy enters more congested markets, she says.

Best Buy entered the New York/New Jersey market in late 2000 with 15 stores, and plans to have 35 stores in the region by 2004. The company now has 19 stores in the area, will add seven this year and three next year, and is opening a new $40-million distributioncenter in Tioga County, NY, to supply stores in New York and nine other states.

The company plans to add New York stores in Brooklyn and Comack, and New Jersey locations in Holmdel, Brick, East Brunswick and Bridgewater this year. Best Buy says it would open New York stores in Huntington Station, Riverhead and Mt. Vernon nextyear. Additional sites are planned for 2004, including more Manhattan stores.

Best Buy, with 492 stores in the US, plans to open 60 new stores this year and expects to have about 600 stores nationwide by 2004.

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Best Buy Floor Plan Fits Into Tight Urban Squeezes

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