One part of Spokane seeing a lot of commercial building activity is the area around Franklin Park Mall in North Spokane. And, since Trader Joe's was announced recently to be opening a second Spokane location at the shopping center I've been receiving some e-mails about what is what up there.
So here are the major business projects in the neighborhood, and yes one is the new Trader Joe's...
New building by Burlington Coat Factory
Being built in what once was a parking lot adjacent to Burlington Coat Factory at 5840 N. Division is brand new Rite Aid store. This new store will open later this year and will replace the current Rite Aid in the in line space at Franklin Park Mall.
The store will be a full Rite Aid store with both pharmacy and retail store. The chain will occupy 17,000 square feet of space there. Construction is well under way and being done by the locally based Vandervert Construction.
Rite Aid is very large, long running pharmacy chain based in East Pennsboro Township,PA. . The company also several other locations around the Inland Northwest, all of which are staying. For more information Rite Aid, visit-
www.riteaid.com
And, it's why Rite Aid is leaving the main shopping center that the cause for all the questions among the community...
Yes, Trader Joe's is still coming to North Spokane
Trader Joe's is not building there own stand alone store but will instead remodel and move into the space last used by the Franklin Park Rite Aid. The site, which is at 5520 N. Division already has a building permit under plan review so construction there should be coming pretty soon.
The plan for Trader Joe's calls for a new store at a little over 12,000 square feet. We don't know how many new jobs this new Trader Joe's store will create but we do know it is planned to open sometime late this year.
We will keep you up to date, and in the meantime for more information on Trader Joe's visit their web site at -
www.traderjoes.com
New building going up by Thai Bamboo
While not actually part of the Franklin Park Mall shopping center, people have also been noticing the new building going up just to the south of shopping center. This is in the formerly vacant lot by Thai Bamboo / Did's Pizza & Froyo right on Division.
This building, which is under construction now will be a two story , 12,000 square foot bank / office building for the Seattle based Washington Federal Bank who recently came into the Inland Northwest by acquiring many former Bank of America branches.
While already in the Inland Northwest, this marks Washington Federal's first move into the City of Spokane itself. The bank will open in the new building, which is at 5322 N. Division in the fall of this year. The first floor of the building will be used as a bank with the second floor being a new regional headquarters for the bank.
In advance of the new building opening later this year, Washington Federal has opened a new temporary branch in leased space near Northtown Mall. This new branch is a full service branch and can be found in the former Cogo Capital space at 4610 N. Division suite 1.
For more information on Washington Federal Bank, visit their web site at-
www.washingtonfederal.com
