Sparks will soon be home to specialty wholesaler HDA, Inc., based in St. Louis, Miss.

The distribution facility will be located at 475 Lillard Dr. and is expected to open within two months, according to Jim Weiskopf, HDA’s director of operations.

The center will occupy 1.5 million square-feet of space and serve an estimated 200-500 retail customers in states west of Colorado.

HDA will provide books on home improvement, home décor and crafts. Distributors include Lowe’s, Michael’s Arts and Crafts and Bed, Bath and Beyond stores.

Magazine partners for distribution include companies such as COMAG Marketing Group, Kable News Company, Curtis Circulation and Time Warner Retail Services, Weiskopf said.

HDA primarily does its shipping through parcel companies with ground services such as UPS and FedEx.

Weiskopf said Sparks is an ideal location for this type of facility because of its accessibility from Colorado.

“Over the last few years it seems to be one of those places that’s like, ‘Where the heck is Sparks?’ ” Weiskopf said. “But the big companies in the transit drive analyses, when they set up hubs in the area, they say this is one of the places that decreases transit.”

Weiskopf said HDA also was attracted to Sparks because of its booming economy, work force and cost of living.

“Sparks pops up whenever you do any kind of analysis on distribution locations as one of the top locations,” Weiskopf said.

Weiskopf said Sparks would also serve as a contingency in the western U.S. in case of an emergency or disaster with other facilities.

“If two locations were pretty close to each other, and if there would be a disaster, whether it’s natural or fire, that would impede the (transit) process with that center,” Weiskopf said. “It would not only decrease transit time, but ... it might have some problems and we’d need a contingency in those kinds of situations. We don’t want to have one burned down and not be able to ship.”

The distributor is contracting with Ozburn-Hessey Logistics, a global supply chain management company, to construct the warehouse in Sparks.

HDA works with all national distributors and is seeking to open another facilitiy on the East Coast, likely in Pennsylvania or West Virginia.

For more information, visit www.hdainc.com.