The owners of the North Idaho Outlets, formerly called the Post Falls Factory Outlets, plan to rename the centerthough they havent picked a new name for it yetand to convert it into a hybrid outlet and conventional retail center to increase traffic there.


Rick Cordes, of Walnut Creek, Calif., who owns the shopping center with partner Gary Patterson, says the two have made those changes with success in other centers they own.


What weve done with a lot of our centers is bring in traditional retailers to balance out the outlet tenants and stimulate the traffic there. Wed like to do that here, Cordes says.


He says that though traffic has been slow since he and Patterson bought the center in 2005, they still are optimistic about its potential and recently bought the Broadmore Factory Outlet Mall, a similar center in the Tri-Cities, which they also plan to turn into a hybrid center.


We knew this would be a long-term play because the center was depressed, Cordes says. The partners also own several other centers in Oregon and California, he says.


The partners have retained NAI Black, of Spokane, to handle leasing for the 130,000 square feet of space that is available in the 180,000-square-foot shopping center. Chris Bell, who along with Chris Siemens is handling leasing of the center for NAI Black, says the owners have yet to determine if the new name will come from an anchor tenant or will reflect a regional theme.


Bell says NAI Black is negotiating with a number of possible tenants, with an eye to adding a home-improvement or home-furnishing retailer.


Bell says the dozen or so current outlet stores there, including the Disney Store, Van Heusen, the Kitchen Store, and General Nutrition Center, are benefiting from the strength of the Canadian dollar, which is at par with the U.S. dollar for the first time in decades. Bell says when he checked on a recent day, there were more Canadian plates in the parking lot than American ones.


He says he expects traffic to increase after the opening of the new Cabelas store, which will use the same Interstate 90 exit as the outlet mall for several years, until a new interchange is completed at Beck Road.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at jeanneg@spokanejournal.com.