Work Starts On Anchor Stores At Valley Mall

Construction of the Spokane Valley Mall’s three anchor stores has started.

Vincent Campanella, project manager for Lydig Construction, Inc., the general contractor for J.C. Penney, said work on the foundation is under way and he expects concrete to be poured next week. Structural steel is slated to be erected beginning the fourth week of September, he said. It will take two months to complete that phase, Campanella said.

Sears project manager Gary Birdsell said foundation work began this week and structural work is expected to begin next week.

Construction of The Bon Marche store began three weeks ago, said project manager Randy Fiala. Baugh Construction Co. is the project’s general contractor, Fiala said.

J.C. Penney will have two floors and will be located in the north central part of the mall. It will encompass 126,000 square feet. There will be three entries from the outside and two from inside the mall, one on each floor, Campanella said. The outside will be stucco and masonry.

Campanella said the J.C. Penney store will be completed by June 1997.

The Bon Marche building will be 120,000 square feet and two stories high, said project senior superintendent Marlow Bumpus. The concrete structure will have four entrances, including one mall entry. On the outside, the building will have a checkerboard pattern within concrete blocks. The Bon will be located at the southeast corner of the mall.

Sears would not release details about the size or design of the anchor until a general contractor is selected to build it.

Work also has begun on the mall area, said Rex Frazier, president of JP Realty, Inc., the mall’s developers. The mall’s steel structure is in place and asphalt for the parking lot currently is being laid, said Frazier.

More than 50 national, regional and local retailers have signed on to lease space in the mall, said Frazier.

, DataTimes