Dillard’s May Join Parade Of Retailers Rushing To Spokane Mall Additions, River Park Square Project Likely To Draw Still More New Players

Dillard’s will likely be the next department store entering the Spokane market, the chief executive of a Spokane real estate firm said Thursday.

The Little Rock, Ark.-based chain with 250 stores nationwide anchors many of the other malls owned by JP Realty, the Salt Lake City company that owns the Spokane Valley Mall. The new mall plans a fifth anchor store to join J.C. Penney, Sears, The Bon Marche and ACT III cinema.

NorthTown Mall also is undergoing a $50 million expansion, more than doubling the size of its Bon Marche store, adding another, 180,000-square-foot anchor store, and building a 12-screen cinema.

“I think we’ll see Dillard’s enter this market,” Dave Black, CEO of Tomlinson Black Group of Cos., said at the 11th Annual Real Estate Market Forum. Black expects to see Dillard’s open a store at the Valley Mall, NorthTown, or both.

NorthTown officials would not comment about future mall tenants, and JP Realty officials were not available for comment.

Black also speculated about future tenants of downtown’s $100 million River Park Square redevelopment.

“One-of-a-kind tenants, specialty shops new to Spokane, like Williams Sonoma, Border’s Books, Ann Taylor and Banana Republic” will populate that center, Black said.

Betsy Cowles, president of the companies that own River Park Square, would not comment about tenant commitments.

Black called the 1990s “the decade of retail for Spokane,” citing stores built by Fred Meyer, Toys ‘R’ Us, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, PETsMART, Staples, Future Shop, Circuit City and Gart Sports. From 1990 to 1996, Black said, taxable retail sales rose 43 percent, from $3.2 billion to $4.58 billion.

Kootenai County’s commercial market also has seen “tremendous change,” said Ron Branson, of Tomlinson Black in North Idaho.

In Coeur d’Alene, Eagle Hardware and Garden and Fred Meyer have opened new stores and Home Depot is planning a store. The city’s bagel shops have increased from “zero to five in two months,” Branson said.

A 200,000-square-foot Hayden Lake shopping complex opened along U.S. Hwy 95, adding an Albertson’s, a discount cinema, a Rite Aid drugstore and other shops.

A 30-acre complex is planned in Post Falls, with Albertson’s as an anchor. Other new Post Falls stores include the popular Hot Rod Cafe, a themed restaurant south of Interstate 90. A Rite Aid drugstore and Kootenai Medical Center satellite location are other planned projects.

Spokane County’s office market has been healthy, said Larry Soehren, of Kiemle and Hagood. In downtown Spokane, Traveler’s Insurance moved into 40,000 square feet in the Crescent Court, Potlatch took over 15,000 square feet in the Seafirst Building and Kaiser Aluminum occupied 6,500 square feet in the Paulsen Building.

Soehren doesn’t expect any huge new office buildings to be built downtown, but existing unoccupied buildings, such as the Lamonts and Newberry building, will be transformed into office space.

The area around downtown also has been active, Soehren said. The 150,000-square-foot Rockpoint III building is 100 percent occupied, and 40,000 square feet of Rockpoint East, the 250,000-square-foot fourth building in the complex, is already committed.

In other forum highlights:

Jim Frank, president of Greenstone Corp., said land for new single-family homes will be harder to come by in north and south Spokane County due to building moratoriums and infrastructure problems.

Peggy Sawicki, of Prudential Acuff Northwest Real Estate in Coeur d’Alene, said Kootenai County’s residential sales should top $250 million in 1998.

Panelists predicted 1998 apartment vacancy rates of 7 to 9 percent in Kootenai County and 11 percent in Spokane County. , DataTimes