Hastings Outgrows Present Location

Hastings is grooving into a new location.

The music and entertainment retailer will be moving in November from its present store at 11324 E. Sprague into the building at Sullivan Square that formerly housed the Best Products store.

Renovations are already under way at the Best building, 15312 E. Sprague, said Kevin Pardue, manager of the Valley’s Hastings store.

Construction crews are building two large dividing walls. Hastings will occupy about 28,000 square feet in the center of the building, and two tenants will move in on either side, Pardue said.

The new store is more than double the size of Hastings’ present 12,000-square foot store.

The entertainment retailer has outgrown its present site since opening there in 1989. Bookshelves are 9 feet high just to accomodate the 40,000 books that Hastings carries.

Since the new store will be more spacious, Pardue estimates he’ll be able to carry about 80,000 books there. He’ll also double his magazine selection and keep older videos on the shelves longer.

“We’ll also have chairs and benches, and a coffee cart set up, so people can come in and drink coffee,” he said. Proceeds from the 25-cent coffee bar will benefit the local literacy fund.

The Valley Hastings store presently employs 40 people, but Pardue said he is hiring 40 more for the new store.

The Best building has been vacant since last fall, after Best Products Co. filed for bankruptcy reorganization and closed its stores nationwide.

Hastings operates more than 110 stores in the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountain states and the South, Pardue said.

The entertainment retailer is not the only store moving into Sullivan Square.

A few weeks ago, Kentucky Fried Chicken opened a 2,700-square foot restaurant just north of the old Best store.

Several other Sullivan Square tenants will also be on the move soon.

Spokane Railway Credit Union is planning to leave Sullivan Square to move into a new, free-standing building currently under construction on the southeast corner of Sullivan and Broadway. The project should be completed early next year. No tenant has yet signed a lease to move into the credit union’s old space.

HAV Western Wear and Golf Cars Etc. are jointly building a new 8,000-square-foot building at 14902 E. Sprague that will house the two stores.

Both will move from Sullivan Square this fall when the new building is completed.

A new restaurant, Mongolian Barbecue, will replace most of 5,200-square foot store being vacated by HAV, said a leasing agent at Goodale and Barbieri.

HAV Inc., a family-owned Valley corporation, owns HAV Western Wear and Golf Cars Etc. and most of the ground underneath Sullivan Square. Eight other businesses currently occupy the retail village.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: COMING AND GOING Several changes have recently happened or are about to occur at Sullivan Square. Here’s:

Who’s coming Hastings Kentucky Fried Chicken Mongolian Barbecue Who’s going Spokane Railway Credit Union HAV Western Wear Golf Cars Etc.