Wal-Mart E Shadle Center Retail Giant Moves Closer To Having Its Coveted North Side Site

After a long, controversial search, Wal-Mart has picked the Shadle Center as the site for a north Spokane store.

The retail giant has submitted plans for a city building permit for a 125,000-square-foot store.

It hopes to begin building in June.

Before Wal-Mart builds, however, the mall owners will demolish much of the 36-year-old mall to make room for Wal-Mart and other, new retailers in a strip-center format. The plans have cleared Construction Services and only need approval from the city traffic and fire departments to be permitted, said Bill Mott, plan reviewer for the city’s Construction Services.

Wal-Mart representatives did not know when the store was expected to open, or if it would sell groceries, as some new Wal-mart outlets do.

The Arkansas-based company had been seeking a north Spokane location for three years. It had originally selected a 40-acre lot on the Newport Highway, but efforts to rezone that site drew protests from neighbors and ultimately were denied by Spokane County. Wal-Mart sued Spokane County along with the property owners to reverse the zoning decision, but withdrew from the suit in March.

Shadle Center developers hope Wal-Mart meets greater approval in its new neighborhood.

“We think this is a good fit,” said Paul Hawkins, a Spokane real estate broker who is Wal-mart’s local agent and who owns a 25 percent share of the center.

Wal-Mart, which has 2,435 stores on four continents, currently has one Spokane store, in the Valley near Broadway and Sullivan.

Other stores in the area are in the Idaho cities of Sandpoint, Moscow and Lewiston, and in Colville, Wash.

Although Wal-Mart has selected one location in north Spokane, it may also consider a second North Side store.

The company also has explored sites near the North Division Y, and that search is expected to continue, said Seattle attorney Jack McCullough, who represented Wal-Mart in its Spokane legal battles.

“When we went to the North Side (three years ago) we said to the community that there are potentially better sites around the Y, and we’re still going to look,” McCullough said. “That process is still going on.”

While the Newport Highway residents battled to keep Wal-Mart out of their neighborhood, there are indications that the store might be more welcome in the Shadle area.

“I think the neighborhood as a whole would appreciate any new anchor tenant in the mall,” said Chris Wright, chair of the Northwest Neighborhoods Council.“I haven’t heard any sentiment against Wal-Mart, and I wouldn’t rule it out, but as a whole, our council would appreciate seeing some new life (at Shadle).”

However, at a December meeting concerning the future of Shadle, a crowd of neighbors booed when Wal-Mart was suggested as a potential Shadle Center tenant.

In recent months, many Shadle-area residents have objected to the recent evictions of a number of longtime tenants.

Those tenants, such as the Bread Basket restaurant and a U.S. Bank branch, were removed to make room for the new tenants, said Hawkins.

According to Hawkins, everything will be demolished between Lamont’s department store to the east and the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant on the west. Lamont’s and Chuck E. Cheese may also be demolished when their leases expire, he said.

“Most of what you see there is coming down,” said Hawkins.