Tool Company To Open Store In Former Ernst Location
Valley do-it-yourselfers will have one more place to shop, starting next month.
Harbor Freight Tools, a California-based retail and catalog tool company, plans to open its first Spokane-area store in early February in the strip mall on the northwest corner of Sprague and Pines.
The company plans to open the 11,000-square-foot store, in the building formerly occupied by Ernst Home Center, on Feb. 4, assistant manager Jeremy Venable said.
The Valley store is part of the company’s ambitious expansion plan, he said.
“The company plans on opening a store in every state for the next few years,” said Venable, who relocated from California where he worked for Harbor Freight Tools for 4-1/2 years.
Currently, Harbor Freight Tools has 50 stores in California, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
The Valley store will have about eight employees, Venable said.
Chevron builds at Liberty Lake
A new Chevron gas station and convenience store is under construction at the intersection of Liberty Lake Road and Country Vista Road.
The 3,700-square foot facility will have a soup and sandwich deli seating 30 people and a tunnel-style car wash equipped with a conveyor that will pull cars through the wash, said owner Don Douglas.
Construction of the $1.5 million project began about three weeks ago. The store should be ready to open in April, said Douglas, who also owns a Chevron gas station at the corner of Sprague and Pines.
“Liberty Lake seems like a great place to be. It’s growing so fast,” he said.
The new station will be at the entrance of the new Liberty Lake Corporate Park, a combination of light industry and office buildings south of Interstate 90, Douglas said.
Wells Fargo opens branch
Wells Fargo Bank opened a new branch inside the Safeway store at 14020 E. Sprague on Wednesday.
The bank branch has four full-time employees who will act as both tellers and banking officers, said Tom Unger, spokesman for Wells Fargo.
The branch also has two automated teller machines.
The branch hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
The bank branch is Wells Fargo’s ninth in Spokane.
, DataTimes