Sullivan Corridor Pulls Businesses Away From Valley Core Locations

Sat., March 1, 1997

By Jennifer Plunkett jenniferp@spokesman.com

It didn’t take long to fill the former location of Ernst Home Center at Pines and Sprague. Six months after the store’s closure due to bankruptcy, Northwest Fabrics & Crafts has signed a lease to occupy the majority of the space.

The store is expected to open April 1.

But property managers trying to lease other empty retail space in the area haven’t been so lucky.

Real estate analysts say retailers are reluctant to locate in the University City area until the development along Sullivan Road and at the Spokane Valley Mall is established.

“Everybody’s gravitating (to the Sullivan Road corridor and the mall area) because you get both a regional presence and you can also deal with neighborhoods,” said Joe Ward, retail broker for Pinnacle Realty.

The University City Shopping Center still has an empty wing, vacant since Rosauers moved to its present location at 10920 E. Sprague in 1986.

U-City is currently in negotiations with Boise-based Albertson’s to open a supermarket at University City, said the mall owner’s attorney, John Magnuson.

“We’re hopeful that the situation will be worked out within the next 30 days,” he said.

Another of the mall’s anchors, Lamonts, closed its doors in January. J.J. Newberry’s, another anchor, closed in late 1995.

To add to the mall’s troubles, J.C. Penney has told Goodale and Barbieri, the mall’s management company, it will leave U-City when the Spokane Valley Mall opens in August.

Ward said he envisions the U-City area becoming dedicated to neighborhood services such as grocery stores, dry cleaners, video stores and restaurants.

Gary McWilliams, owner of 1st Real Estate Services, said that for years U-City was the Valley’s main retail area.

“There’s a lot of us who wish it was still a viable retail center,” he said. “It’s not going to be anything like it was before.”

But, Ward and McWilliams agreed, in time the area will bounce back.

“There are 90,000 people who live in the Valley,” said Ward. “Of that, 82,000 live within a five-mile radius of Pines and Sprague. If you have dry cleaning to do, why would you want to drive all the way out to the mall to do it?”

, DataTimes

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