Northgate’S Transformation Tenant Turnover Just Part Of A Strip Mall’S Evolution, Marketing Company Says

Changes are afoot at the North Side Northgate shopping center.

Thursday, Regal Cinema’s North Division theater will show its last movie, making way for the national theater chain’s new 12-screen cineplex at NorthTown Mall.

That opens a new hole at Northgate, where furniture store Heilig-Meyers, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August, is also closing. And Albertson’s may soon follow.

The supermarket company has applied to the city for a zoning change in order to develop a new store at the southeast corner of Nevada Street and Lyons Avenue, less than a mile from its Northgate store.

Losing businesses is part of every strip mall’s evolution, said Marshall Clark, whose company, Clark Pacific Real Estate Co., markets Northgate.

“It’s just going through its natural cycle,” he said. “Heilig-Meyer’s bankruptcy has just sped it along.”

The low point for the center, he said, was in 1996 when Best went out of business. Since then, however, the center has seen a number of new tenants move in.

Michael’s, a popular craft supply store, is now located in the old Best store. Music, video and book retailer Hasting’s relocated to the center in 1998.

As for the spaces opening up, Clark said new tenants will bring improvements.

“Those buildings are 20-some years old, and getting new businesses in there is great,” he said. “The theater, quite frankly, has always been a problem with the parking in the southeast corner.”

One new store that has announced it is coming to Northgate is United Grocers Cash & Carry, a division of Commerce, Calif.-based Smart & Final. The warehouse grocery store is scheduled to open in early 2001.

Cash & Carry marketing director Bruce Varney said the store primarily serves small food service businesses.

“We carry everything. If you had a restaurant, you could in theory use us and nobody else,” he said. “We carry produce, meats, restaurant equipment and other supplies.”

Clark said the Heilig Meyer’s building is going up for bid next month. He expects another furniture store to move into the space.

Around town

Folks in Spokane sure must like roast beef sandwiches.

Local Arby’s owners Cyrus Vaughn and David McGann’s 6316 N. Division store sold more food and drink last year than any other Arby’s store in the country. The two were presented with the “Highest Annual Sales Award for 1999” at the Arby’s franchisee convention last week in Las Vegas.

The $2,167,439 total sales the store had last year was almost three times the national Arby’s store average of $760,000.

Vaughn and McGann beat out the owners of the 3,200 other Arby’s stores nationwide.

Bath & Body Works is opening a new Spokane location at 9758 N. Newport Hwy. in the Northpointe shopping center. The company, which also owns Victoria’s Secret, already has Bath & Body Works stores at the Spokane Valley Mall, NorthTown and River Park Square. The new store is expected to open within the next few months.

T.G.I. Friday’s is breaking into the Spokane market at 14728 E. Indiana Ave., on the north side of the Spokane Valley Mall. The national chain features a wide variety of food in a casual dining atmosphere. Of restaurants already operating in the Inland Northwest, T.G.I. Friday’s could most closely be compared to Chili’s, The Onion or Cyrus O’Leary’s.

Friday’s will employ about 100 people and open in spring 2001.

After scoring a slam dunk with its Zags Blend coffee during the NCAA basketball playoffs, Craven’s Coffee is branching out into an expanded line of collegiate blends.

The Spokane-based coffee roaster now has licensing agreements with the University of Montana and the University of Idaho, in addition to its deal with Gonzaga University. Fans and alumni can now buy Vandals Blend and Montana Grizzlies Blend coffees. A portion of the proceeds goes to the universities.

NorthTown celebrates the grand openings of its three new anchor tenants - Barnes & Noble, Nordstrom Rack and Regal Cinemas 12-screen theater with a Saturday ribbon-cutting ceremony at 9:30 a.m. outside the south entrance of Barnes & Noble.