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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Wheel Sport Shop Pairs With Smitty’s On Sullivan

The recent opening of a new Wheel Sport bicycle shop in the Valley completes the tenant list of a new two-store retail center at 606 N. Sullivan.

The first tenant, Smitty’s Appliance and TV, opened shortly after the building was completed three months ago.

Wheel Sport sells Trek, Gary Fisher, Bontrager and Barracuda mountain bikes. It also stocks Haro BMX and Lemond road-racing bikes.

The mainstay of the business, though, is definitely the knobby-tired, thick-framed mountain bikes.

“It’s probably about 95 percent of our business,” says partner and manager John Abernathy.

Mountain biking’s popularity has exploded, Abernathy says, but when the first multi-geared, all-terrain models appeared he was skeptical.

“I thought it was a fad,” he remembers. “Then I rode one and it was incredible.”

Wheel Sport also operates two stores on the North Side and one on the South Hill. Abernathy says the Valley was the next obvious site because of all the new development along the Sullivan corridor.

The bike shop is next-door to Smitty’s Appliance and TV, which sells cellular telephones, washing machines and dryers, videocassette recorders and direct-view and big-screen televisions. That store is hard to miss; visitors and passers-by there are greeted by a giant, blue-garbed inflatable Maytag repairman.

Owner Ed Smith says he worked as a district manager for the Maytag company for 12 years before opening Smitty’s.

In addition to Maytag, the store also carries Admiral, Sharp and General Electric products.

Construction of the new, two-space store center occupied by both businesses was completed this spring. It was built by developers Paul Redlin and Ken Redlin, Smith says.

Future Shop under construction

The new Future Shop store at Sprague and Sullivan should open before Christmas, says company spokesman Eric Ommunsen.

The 32,000 square-foot store will be located at 115 N. Sullivan, and is being built by Shea Construction. Terry Estes, the project superintendent, says the foundation has been laid and walls have been raised. Workers are now in the process of roofing the structure and pouring floor slab, Estes says.

Vancouver, B.C.-based Future Shop also plans to open a store in the old Smith’s Home Furnishings building at Northpointe. That store should also be open before Christmas, Ommunsen says.

Future Shop sells computers, home office equipment, audio and video gear, appliances and compact discs. It is Canada’s largest electronics retailer, with 69 stores there and 20 more in the western United States.

Les Schwab builds addition

The Les Schwab Tire Center at 15915 E. Sprague kicked off a grand-opening for its new alignment center Thursday.

Manager Jock Lowry says the new building contains another five work bays, upping number of service bays at the shop to 11.

“The volume is increasing, and to adapt to that we built on,” Lowry says. Les Schwab sells tires and shocks and also services brakes and suspension systems.

, DataTimes