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Discount Tire plans a Medford store Tuesday Mar 29, 2016 at 3:19 PM Mar 29, 2016 at 3:47 PM Greg Stiles Mail Tribune @GregMTBusiness Discount Tire Store, which bills itself as the world's largest tire and wheel retailer, with more than 925 stores in 31 states, is seeking to build a new outlet in Medford off Highway 62. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company operates 10 stores in the Willamette Valley and Central Oregon. The company's plans, for a 9,181-square-foot store on 1.22 acres on Crater Lake Highway across from Del Taco and Lava Lanes, will go before the city's Site Plan and Architectural Commission Friday. "This site has specifically been on our radar for a couple of years," said Discount Tire spokesman Greg Miller. "We've been looking at the retail growth coming up around there, and being in the thick of things is appealing to us in how we place stores. We try to be in normal pathways. Folks can see us when they're passing our store 300 times a year on the way to work, it gives us name recognition. " He said the targeted opening is Feb. 1, 2017, and the company plans to hire 15 to 20 employees. The shop will have six work bays and a 1,300-square-foot showroom with room for an inventory of 3,500 tires and accessories. The store will face southwest on a 7,000-square-foot footprint with a mezzanine. Although the fish-shaped property is not technically part of the Delta Center, motorists will access the store behind Starbucks in the center. ODOT wouldn't allow direct access off Crater Lake Highway, said Desmond McGeough, a planner with the city. He added ODOT plans to relocate Lone Pine Creek, which is west of the property, to change the angle it crosses a highway bypass planned for the area. Discount Tire was founded in 1960 in Ann Arbor, Mich., by Bruce Halle, now board chairman. The company ranked No. 109 on Forbes' list of private companies in 2015, with 2014 revenue just shy of $4 billion. It employs more than 17,000 people and operates about two dozen warehouses, distribution sites and cross dock centers in addition to its retail stores. The company opened its first shop in Oregon more than 30 years ago, but the oldest existing shops were occupied in March 1991 in Eugene and Tigard. Its most recent addition was in Hillsboro in April 2012. Discount Tire is a sponsor of the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Monster Energy AMA Supercross. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/greg.stiles.31.