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Cat's out of the bag!!! Here is the beginning of our domestic stores. . . stayed tuned for more!

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Nike’s hometown is getting its Swoosh relocated.

The athletic footwear and apparel giant, founded in Eugene 44 years ago, will leave the Fifth Street Public Market this fall to open a prototype retail store at Oakway Center. The new, 6,500-square-foot store is expected to be open by September in a building under construction adjacent to P.F. Chang’s China Bistro at the corner of Coburg and Oakway roads.

“Their history with Eugene makes it kind of special,” said Steve Korth, Oakway’s director of real estate development. “They’re a big company, recognized worldwide, but their roots are with Eugene.

“And it fits a really unique niche in the collection of uses we have here.”

Nike announced the move in a brief written statement, saying the company looks forward to being part of a “vibrant new retail center” at Oakway, and thanking owners of the Fifth Street Public Market for their years of support.

“We know our customers will be excited to see the new space and enjoy a fresh retail experience,” Laurie Beja Miller, Nike’s vice president of U.S. retail, said in the statement.

Bob Applegate, the company’s director of communications for Oregon, said specifics about the new store’s design and content are still emerging. He said he could not comment on potential themes for the store or its cost, and he had no information on the number of employees that will be needed.

“I don’t have a lot of details on it yet,” he said.

But Korth said Nike’s move to Oakway is due to a happy convergence of interest and opportunity. His family-owned shopping center had begun construction of the new building on speculation, with the intention of leasing portions of it to at least a couple of tenants, when Korth was contacted by an acquaintance in Nike’s real estate department.

“They were coming up with a new, Nike-format concept store, and they wanted to kick the thing off in Eugene,” Korth said. “He was checking with me to see if I knew of something available in the 6,500-square-foot range. So I said, ‘We have the perfect spot.’ It was pretty ironic.”

Nike has had its local retail outlet at the Fifth Street Market since 1988, when it moved from a small space in the Atrium Building to a 3,400-square-foot storefront on the Public Market’s third floor.

It moved in 1999 to a glitzy new 6,000-square-foot store at the northwest corner of the Market property, following a long construction process peppered with protests over tree-cutting at the site and work conditions at Third World factories.

Fifth Street Public Market owner Brian Obie said last month that he has begun preliminary negotiations and planning for a $25 million hotel and condominium building on the Market property, and there had been speculation that the Nike building — whose lease runs out in February 2009 — might be part of that project.

Obie was not available for comment on Friday, but Public Market General Manager Bri Bridges said the hotel’s likely footprint does not include the Nike storefront.

“We’re not really talking about the location (of the hotel) or anything, but it would not take Nike’s place,” Bridges said. “We’re just looking at what would be complementary (in the Nike space), both to the Market and to the hotel and condos.”

Bridges said that even though Nike will be leaving its Public Market space about six months before its lease expires, the departure will enable a further fine-tuning of the venue’s tenant mix. The Public Market completed a major remodel two years ago, replacing several small arts-and-crafts tenants with a few upscale retailers.

“This actually opens the door for just some incredible opportunities for the Market,” Bridges said. “We’re trying to figure out what is really going to complete the retail mix that we have.”

At Oakway, Korth said the new Nike building is beginning to take shape and many exterior details will be added over the next several weeks. A square tower at the building’s north end along Oakway Road is an “architectural piece” that will include a Nike sign.

“(Nike officials) want to keep some ties to their Pacific Northwest roots, so there will be some exterior wood detailing,” Korth said. “You’ll start to see these things come to life in the next six weeks or so.”

Nike, with headquarters in Beaverton, was founded in 1964 by former University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman and former UO athlete and business student Phil Knight.

Nike (NYSE: NKE) reported revenue of $16.3 billion and net income of nearly $1.5 billion for the fiscal year that ended May 31. For its most recent quarter, which ended Nov. 30, the company had $4.4 billion in revenue and net income of $359 million