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A new dealer of Alltel wireless services is buying the remaining nine Joe Cristiani-named retail stores in Southern Arizona.

The sale, expected to close today, means Cristiani's customers will be converted to Alltel Express wireless service in the next 30 days, said Darren Yager, chief operations officer for the buyer, Express Locations LLC.

It also removes from the Tucson retail scene a name made familiar in TV and radio pitches by Cristiani himself.

As part of the purchase, Cristiani's stores stopped offering wireless service from Cricket, Sprint and Cingular and were offering only Alltel plans Tuesday. Cristiani's other five stores — four in Tucson, one in Yuma — converted last year from outlets offering multiple brands of wireless service under Cristiani's name to Cingular-only service.

Cristiani did not return calls about the sale Tuesday. Arthur Blue, vice president of Joe Cristiani's Mobile Communications Inc., 6802 E. Broadway, declined to offer specifics about the sale, except to say it has been a "lengthy process."

Express Locations is a "premier agent" for Alltel services, and the purchase of the Cristiani stores was its first, Yager said. The business incorporated in Washington state in November.

Yager, a former executive with Western Wireless Corp., started Express Locations, based in Issaquah, Wash., with other former Western Wireless executives. The purchase of the Cristiani stores was part of an "aggressive expansion" into the Southwest, said Marty Jenkins, the director of sales for Express Locations in Arizona.

"We're using the Tucson market as our initial launch," Jenkins said.

The Tucson stores aren't operated by Alltel Communications, Yager said. However, "The stores will look like other Alltel store outlets," with the signs changing in the next 30 days, he said.

Express Locations is looking to open in areas where Alltel wireless already has a presence, Yager said. Over the next two years, the company plans to open 10 to 20 more Alltel Express stores in Phoenix and to expand into New Mexico and Texas, Yager said.

"The wireless business itself continues to grow. Alltel is a leader nationwide and is already a top carrier in Arizona," Yager said. "But it's also an under-penetrated market. Tucson will give access to Alltel for further expansion."

Currently there are 460,000 Alltel wireless subscribers in Arizona, said Chris Hunt, a communications manager with Alltel Communications in Little Rock, Ark. Figures for Tucson subscribers weren't readily available, Hunt said.

Yager said they plan to keep the 30 salespeople and managers who were employed at the Cristiani stores.

"In fact we're expanding the work force and hope to grow to 45 in the next year (2006)," said Yager, who declined to specify the purchase price for the nine stores.

The sale of Joe Cristiani's stores comes 13 years after the opening of the first outlet at Tucson Mall in 1993.

In April 2005, five Cristiani stores were changed to Cingular Wireless outlets — locations at 7090 N. Oracle Road, 2485 N. Swan Road, 4777 E. Sunrise Drive and 7163 E. Tanque Verde Road and a store in Yuma.

Beyond Cristiani's familiar ads, some of them featuring his mother, he has maintained a community presence by raising money for various local groups. He started the Joe Cristiani Foundation in 1998, according to the foundation's Web site.

The foundation sponsors annual "Gala Weekends" with a two-day golf tournament, wine tasting, dinners, entertainment and auctions in Tucson.