MARYSVILLE — “This morning, a woman came in our store and said, ‘I’ve lived in this town for 10 years and I never knew you were here,’” Dunn Lumber President Michael E. Dunn said Oct. 9. “Located where we are, between State and Cedar avenues, we’re hidden from a lot of people.”

Dunn Lumber opened its Marysville store on Grove Street 41 years ago, but they’re hoping they’ll get a higher profile with their proposed addition of 80,000-square-feet of retail space on State Avenue, adjacent to their current property.

Dunn explained that the new store will include an expanded selection of paint, hardware, plumbing and electrical supplies, and will carry “the largest supply of decking material in the Northwest,” to cater to its established clientele of both professional contractors and do-it-yourselfers.

“We’ll have a lot more visibility, especially on Marysville’s main street,” Dunn said. “Plus, we’ve been too small to do package business. This is actually one of our smaller facilities.”

Dunn acknowledged that the permitting and contracting processes for constructing a new store would be gradual, but he looks forward to giving both car and truck drivers another access point on State Avenue. He likewise plans to lease the currently empty pawn shop building to another business.

“It’s always better to have a business rather than an empty building,” Dunn said. “We’ve already noticed some trash between that building and our fence, so we don’t want people to feel like it’s not being cared for. I’ve always loved this community and felt like our business here was on the cusp of really growing and breaking through to a new level, but we’ve never been at full capacity. I think being set back from the main street was part of the reason.”

Dunn Lumber was founded by Albert L. Dunn in 1907 in Seattle, currently operates 11 lumber yards from Renton to Marysville, and continues to be both owned and operated by the Dunn family.