Black Pitches New Retail Center Spokane Developer Seeking Tenants For Proposed North Side Project

FOR THE RECORD (May 15, 1996): CORRECTION: An article in the May 9 business section of The Spokesman-Review incorrectly identified the site of a retail development planned by Tomlinson Black Group of Cos. It is located at the intersection of Mount Spokane Park Drive and Newport Highway.

Residents along the fast-growing Newport Highway corridor in north Spokane County soon could have a shorter trip to the grocery store.

Tomlinson Black Group of Cos. plans to build a retail center anchored by a 55,000-square-foot grocery store on a 10-acre parcel of land at the intersection of U.S. Highway 2 and Day Mt. Spokane Road. The Mead Plaza project also will include a 25,000-square-foot drugstore, a McDonald’s restaurant and other small retail stores.

“There’s a whole bunch of new subdivisions in the area not served by a grocery store,” said Dave Black, chief executive officer of Tomlinson Black.

Black said he is negotiating with a number of different grocery stores but has not closed a deal.

Mead Plaza is one of three projects being displayed by Tomlinson Black at the International Council of Shopping Center’s spring convention in Las Vegas this week. The company also is showing site plans for Latah Creek Plaza and the redevelopment of Shadle Shopping Center.

In addition to new residential development, other factors make the Mead site enticing for developers. The new $37.5 million Mt. Spokane-Mead High School is being built to the east and is scheduled to open in 1997, with 1,000 students.

Also, according to traffic studies, 11,000 cars travel daily on Highway 2, and 4,000 travel daily on Day Mt. Spokane. According to population projections, 58,000 people and 23,000 households will be within a seven-mile radius of the proposed development by 1998.

Mead Plaza will be built on the northwest corner of the intersection, with construction of McDonald’s to begin in July. The site also will include 14,000 square feet of retail space, possibly including a sandwich shop, video store, drycleaner, and other “neighborhood” uses, Black said. That space will not be developed until the grocery store has been completed.

Two factors are complicating negotiations with grocery stores. Some of the smaller grocery companies are nervous, Black said, that their business will be depleted when a Fred Meyer superstore is built at Hastings and U.S. Highway 395 in the Wandermere neighborhood. That store is slated to open in 1998. Still, Black is confident a lease with a grocery store will be signed.

The northeast and southwest corners of the intersection already are being developed, with a Zip Trip and a Chevron gas station.

, DataTimes