Graham Construction & Management Inc., of Spokane, says Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has awarded it a more than $11 million contract to build the big Bentonville, Ark.-based retail chains new West Plains supercenter.


Construction has started on the roughly 185,000-square-foot store in the Crosspointe Plaza Shopping Center near the northeast corner of U.S. 2 and Hayford Road, and is expected to be completed by early September, says Grahams project manager Patrick McCord. Last summer, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said it would take three months after the project was completed to stock the store and train its 350-some employees.


Graham has built other supercenters for Wal-Mart in the Seattle area and in Canada, McCord says. Tacoma, Wash.-based BCRA designed the West Plains store, and Denver-based CLC Associates Inc., was the engineer, he says. McCord declines to disclose specific details about the dollar value of the contract.


Meanwhile, just southeast of the Wal-Mart site, Graham also is building a new, 132,000-square-foot headquarters for Spokane-based Ambassadors Group Inc., in the Pacific Northwest Technology Park along the east side of Flint Road, between U.S. 2 and Airport Drive, says Graham project manager Brian Holecek. Grahams contract for that project, which is expected to wrap up this August, totals roughly $12.2 million, Holecek says.


The company also is working on a $3.2 million contract to build a 44,000-square-foot plant in Liberty Lake for Spokane Valley-based stone fabricator Mario & Son Inc., Holecek says. That project is expected to be completed by June.


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