Some of the Spokane areas big distribution centers are getting bigger.


Expansions are under way at a number of facilities that are seeking to ease overcrowding and keep up with demand.


In our case, its because were growing faster and gaining market share, says Doug Miller, president and chief operating officer at Jensen Distribution Services, the big Spokane-based hardware distributor. The last two years, our sales increases are running in the double digits.


In addition to Jensen, distributors that are expanding their facilities or moving into new, larger spaces include West Coast Paper Co., of Seattle; Core-Mark International Inc., a San Francisco-based distributor of convenience-store items; and Aslin-Finch Feed Co., a Spokane-based animal feed manufacturer, distributor, and retailer.


Also, Food Services of America Inc., of Seattle, finished an $8.8 million expansion and renovation earlier this year at its facility in northeast Spokane. Another food-service company, Sysco Food Services of Spokane Inc., opened a $20 million facility in Post Falls last year and has said it will expand that facility in the next couple of years.


Last spring, a retailer rumored to be Wal-Mart Stores Inc. mulled development of a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution facility on the West Plains. In August, however, a Wal-Mart spokesman said the company had shelved its plans for an additional hub in the West.


Of the projects that currently are under way, the most recent is a $5 million expansion at the Jensen facility, located along Aero Road on the West Plains. Miller says the company is building a 120,000-square-foot expansion to the complex, which will give it a total of 500,000 square feet of warehouse space.


Miller says the facility is expected to be completed by the end of February and will ease overcrowding in the current space, which houses an inventory of more than 52,000 different items.


The company is on pace to hit $115 million in sales this year, up 10.5 percent from $104 million in revenues in 2005, he says.


Miller says the company distributes goods to hardware stores throughout the West, in Alaska and in British Columbia and Alberta, and much of its sales growth is occurring outside of the Spokane market. Still, he says, its less expensive and more efficient to expand the facility here than to open a second distribution center elsewhere.


Its more economical to keep inventory in one warehouse rather than split it, Miller says. Its less expensive to pay the additional transportation costs than to pay for an additional facility.


Just north of the Jensen Distribution facility, Aslin-Finch Feed is nearing completion of a $1.6 million expansion. That 30,000-square-foot expansion gives the company a total of 90,000 square feet of floor space there.


Aslin-Finchs distribution arm, Afco Distribution Services, distributes goods to more than 500 feed-supply and pet stores in six western U.S. states.


In Spokane Valley, Crown West Realty LLC is well under way on construction of a 100,000-square-foot distribution facility for Core-Mark International in the northern portion of the Spokane Business & Industrial Park. That facility is scheduled to be completed in mid-November.


Tom Small, the San Francisco-based vice president of operations for Core-Mark, says the company will consolidate two facilities it currently operates in Spokane into the larger space late this year, which will allow its distribution operations to be more efficient. Also, he says, the new facility will include additional refrigeration and freezer space to support growing demand for refrigerated and frozen products.


Core-Marks facility here distributes to its customers in Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Small says the company looked at North Idaho as a potential expansion location, but opted to stay in the Spokane area.


The big advantage is that we have a good Spokane-based work force, he says.


Dean Stuart, director of marketing for Crown West, says that in the big industrial park, which has a total of more than 6 million square feet of floor space, about a third of the space is used for warehousing and distribution operations, and most of the rest is used for manufacturing. He says those percentages have been fairly consistent, though the percentage of distribution space has ticked upward slightly in recent years.


Also in Spokane Valley, West Coast Paper Co. has broken ground on a 75,000-square-foot facility along Marietta Avenue, near the Marietta-Sullivan Road intersection. That facility, which will be one of 12 distribution hubs the company operates in the western U.S., is scheduled to be completed in June of 2007.


West Coast will move its Spokane division there from its current, smaller quarters at 3420 E. Ferry. In addition to warehouse space, the new building will include offices and expanded showroom space.


The new building is an exciting development, says Milton Cardle, general manager of West Coasts Spokane division. We are confident about the opportunities for continued growth in the region.