Best Buy plans to open a store near 31st and Iowa streets by fall 2003, a company official said Tuesday.

Company officials announced more than a year ago that they had plans to build a store next to the Home Depot being built on the northeast corner of 31st and Iowa streets. But company officials were mum about when the facility might open as they waited for the project’s other main tenant, Home Depot, to win approval from city officials.

Excavation work is under way at the site for future Home Depot and Best Buy stores near 31st and Iowa streets. Best Buy officials announced Tuesday that they plan to have their store open by fall 2003.

Jenny Bohuslavsky, a spokeswoman for Best Buy, said the Minneapolis-based electronics retailer hopes to have the Lawrence store open by late summer to early fall 2003.

She said the store will be one of the company’s new “smaller-market” prototype stores.

The store will have about 30,000-square-feet of space, which is about 15,000 square feet less than a typical Best Buy store.

“The difference consumers will see won’t be in the product selection, but rather in the amount of stock the smaller stores have,” Bohuslavsky said.

Bohuslavsky said the smaller stores were part of Best Buy’s new strategy to increase its presence in areas where the company already has stores.

“We have stores in Kansas City and Topeka, so we think having a store in Lawrence will make it much more convenient for shoppers in that area,” Bohuslavsky said. “We’re really just trying to build out the markets that we’re in to make it more convenient for our shoppers.”

The store will be built directly west of Home Depot. Both stores will face 31st Street.

The store, which is one of 67 that Best Buy is building this year, will employ 100 to 125 people, Bohuslavsky said.

In addition to being slightly smaller than a typical Best Buy store, she said the facility will have a new design that features wider aisles, less visible storage and a greater emphasis on displaying digital products, such as digital televisions, telephones and cameras.