Ashley Furniture HomeStore, which announced earlier plans to open a store in Liberty Lake in March, says it also now plans to open an outlet in the Pine Water Plaza II retail development just north of Spokane.


An affiliate company, Heggen-Thorud Properties LLC, plans to build a roughly 45,000-square-foot structure at Pine Water Plaza that will house both the new furniture store and a Sleep City mattress outlet, says Jed Heggen, co-owner of that company. The building will be situated on 3 acres of land Heggen-Thorud bought just south of an Aslin-Finch Feed & Pet Supply store there. Pine Water Plaza II is located southwest of the U.S. 2-Nevada Street intersection, Heggen says.


Guy Byrd, of Spokane-based Cornerstone Property Advisors LLC, handled the transaction.


Heggen-Thorud hopes to start construction on the project in January and finish it about six months later, Heggen says. Meier Enterprises Inc., of Kennewick, Wash., is the architect, and the contractor will be selected later. Heggen says no cost estimates are ready for release yet.


Ashley Furniture HomeStore and Sleep City, both of which are based in Missoula, Mont., and share common ownership, likely would hire a total of about 25 employees to work at the North Side complex, he says.


We targeted that North Division area because of the demographics of the home growth there, Heggen says. This is an up-and-coming location with potential for growth in the near future.


The Ashley Furniture store thats expected to open in March in Liberty Lake will occupy a building that another affiliated company is constructing and that also will house a Sleep City store, he says. Separately, Sleep City also is remodeling a building near NorthTown Mall that formerly housed a Blockbuster Inc. store for an outlet it hopes to open early next month, he says.


Ashley Furniture HomeStore and Sleep City, which operate several stores in Montana and one in Richland, Wash., are looking to open more stores in Eastern Washington and North Idaho, likely in Post Falls and Coeur dAlene, he says.


The stores owners also are close to completing a lease for 40,000 square feet of warehouse space in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park, in Spokane Valley, which will serve as a distribution center for the stores here and any future outlets in the region, Heggen says. The distribution center likely will employ about 20 people initially.


Ashley Furniture HomeStores are independently operated and licensed to sell products manufactured by Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., of Arcadia, Wis. There are more than 300 outlets operating internationally, the companys Web site says.


Contact Emily Proffitt at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyp@spokanejournal.com.