WSS is hosting a holiday pop-up in the former Fallas Paredes location in Downtown Fresno. Photo Gabriel Dillard

The former home of Fallas Paredes on Downtown Fresno’s Fulton Street wasn’t empty for long as a major shoe chain prepares to open for a test run.

Employees of WSS were busy Friday morning setting up the store for a Saturday opening. Temporary signage announcing that WSS was hiring for all positions was hanging over the door.

A WSS representative manning the front door said it would it’s a temporary holiday opening, or pop-up, to see how the retailer performs in the space. The building at 1136 Fulton St. has been vacant since July when discount clothing chain Fallas Paredes closed its remaining stores, leaving a gaping vacancy in a corridor regarded as a bellwether for economic wellbeing of Downtown Fresno.

Los Angeles-based shoe retailer WSS (formerly Warehouse Shoe Sale) has about 100 stores — mostly in California but there are a handful in Nevada, Arizona and Texas, according to its websites.

There are two locations in Fresno — near Kings Canyon Road and Chestnut Avenue in Southeast Fresno and Clinton and Weber avenues in the same shopping center as Vallarta. There’s also a location in Visalia.

Efforts to reach WSS corporate offices Friday morning were unsuccessful.

Last year, New York-based mega-chain Foot Locker completed a $750 million acquisition of Eurostar, Inc., the parent company of WSS.

“WSS is a highly complementary addition to our portfolio, and we are excited to officially welcome its team to the Foot Locker family. WSS brings an expanded and differentiated customer base rooted in the rapidly growing Hispanic community, diversifies and enhances our product mix, and strengthens our footprint with a 100% off-mall store fleet located in key markets. We look forward to building on WSS’ deep community connections, as we accelerate its growth and drive significant additional long-term value for our shareholders,” according to a statement from Richard A. Johnson, chairman and CEO of Foot Locker, in a news release.

Foot Locker purchased WSS on the expectation it would “generate low double-digit sales growth annually and low double-digits to mid-teens EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margins over the next five years…”