Signs went up Monday in the windows of the Wholesale Sports store on Canal Drive in Kennewick saying the store is closed and will reopen as Sportsman's Warehouse in a few weeks.

The company plans to open the store March 25, said Karen Seaman, chief marketing officer for Sportsman's Warehouse, in an email to the Herald.

Wholesale Sports was a Sportsman's Warehouse store until it was sold to Canada-based UFA Co-operative in 2009. Seaman confirmed that Sportsman's Warehouse, headquartered in Midvale, Utah, has purchased the building.

Temporary store manager Ryan Steele, who manages a Sportsman's Warehouse in Albuquerque, N.M., said he's in town to oversee the transition, which may involve changing the floor layout and transferring merchandise.

"In a few weeks it'll look just like a Sportsman's Warehouse," he said.

Steele said employees had been informed about the change, and the question of who would be keeping their job already had been dealt with several days ago.

"Employees are being hired for this location; some being former employees of Wholesale Sports," Seaman said.

Steele said some former Wholesale Sports employees were working in the store assisting with the transition.

Anyone who has Wholesale Sports gift cards will be able to redeem them at Sportsman's Warehouse "as soon as we can load all the Wholesale Sports gift card information into our system we can accept them at our stores," Seaman said.

According to the company's website, the only other Sportsman's Warehouse store in Washington is in Puyallup.