Construction is under way on an 873,000-square-foot building east of Sparks that will serve as PetSmart Inc.'s major West Coast distribution center, officials announced Sunday.
PetSmart has signed a lease to occupy the building at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center through 2023, said center spokesman Miles Ottenheimer.
Plans call for the nation's largest pet store chain to begin operations in the building in April 2008 and eventually employ between 200 and 300 people there.
The building will be slightly smaller than Wal-Mart's 916,000-square-foot distribution center, the largest at the industrial park.
PetSmart has a smaller plant at Stead that handles the company's most popular sales items.
The distribution center being built by United Construction will handle all of the Phoenix-based chain's line of products.