Vandervert Construction Inc. has started building a Lowes Cos. home-improvement store in Spokane Valley and a Numerica Credit Union branch in Airway Heights in contracts worth a combined total of about $12.4 million.


Meanwhile, the Spokane-based contractor also has started site work on land in front of a Fred Meyer store in the Wandermere area in preparation for construction of a fueling center the retailer plans there as well as development of a car wash by a company that operates car washes in North Idaho.


Vandervert Construction started work last month on the Lowes store in a planned retail center at about 16000 E. Broadway, east of Sullivan Road and bordering on Interstate 90. The contractor expects to complete the 140,000-square-foot store, which will have a 30,000-square-foot garden center attached, in mid-November, says project manager Jeff Gallagher.


Vandervert Construction also is doing site work on the rest of the 23-acre development there, which is just east of a Wal-Mart supercenter. Its contract for all of the work totaled about $11 million, he says.


Additionally, Vandervert Construction is building a Numerica Credit Union branch at the northwest corner of Hayford Road and U.S. 2, in Airway Heights, at a cost of about $1.4 million, says project manager Chris Collins. That 4,400-square-foot building, designed by Seattle-based EHS Architecture, is expected to be completed by the end of November, Collins says.


On the Wandermere site, Vandervert Construction started site work on a 2.5-acre parcel east of U.S. 395 in front of the Fred Meyer store there about two weeks ago, says project manager Tim Stulc. The contractor expects to complete grading work there within a week, he says.


Fred Meyer Stores, of Portland, Ore., expects to receive building permits for its planned fuel center there within the next few weeks, says spokeswoman Melinda Merrill. The 4,500-square-foot facility will have 10 fuel pumps, Merrill says. Great Basin Engineering, of Ogden, Utah, designed the project, and Fred Meyer plans to select soon a contractor that will build the fueling center. The roughly $1 million project will take about 10 weeks to complete, she says.


Fred Meyer is selling the other two parcels it owns there to John Hansen, who co-owns car washes in Post Falls and Coeur dAlene. Once the transaction is completed, Hansen says he will build a car wash on the southernmost of the two parcels, just north of Pine Acres Par 3 & Driving Range.


Hansen hasnt completed his plans for the northern parcel yet.


The car wash, to be called Wandermere Car Wash Plaza, is to include three automatic bays and four self-service bays, as well as a dog wash, Hansen says. He will own the operation with Barbara Chisolm through a company called Wandermere Car Wash Plaza LLC.


Vandervert Construction will be the contractor for the project, he says. A start date for construction hasnt been set yet, but the project will take about three months to complete. Hansen declines to disclose the cost of the project. He expects to open the car wash by December.


Hansen says he and Chisolm are eyeing other locations for car washes in Spokane, but declines for now to disclose further details.


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