YAKIMA -- A national-brand Chinese restaurant is expected to open in Yakima by the end of the year.

Construction is under way for a Panda Express, a California-based restaurant chain. The company has purchased property off South First Street, near the Grocery Outlet, to build the 2,450-square-foot restaurant, said David Landsberg, vice president of real estate for Panda Restaurant Group, the parent company of Panda Express and several other restaurant chains.

The Yakima restaurant is one of 160 Panda Express locations the company is planning to open this year.

"We're trying to grow throughout the Northwest," Landsberg said. "We have stores in the Tri-Cities that are doing quite well and Yakima seemed like the logical next step."

-- Mai Hoang