A national company, rumored to be Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is considering developing a mammoth distribution center on the West Plains.


Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke says the county has been approached by a consultant representing the company interested in building the large distribution center. The consultant refused to disclose the name of the company he represents, Mielke says, but he says rumors are that the company is Wal-Mart.


A Wal-Mart spokesman couldnt be reached for comment.


No applications or plans have been submitted to the county for such a project yet, says Jim Manson, the countys director of building and planning.


Stan Key, industry manager at the Spokane Area Economic Development Council, confirms that he is working with a company that wants to build a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center on an about 250-acre site. He declines to disclose the name of that company, because of a nondisclosure agreement he has with it.


Key says the company has looked at several sites in the Spokane area over the past year and has chosen land that Spokane developer Peter Carstens owns. The property is located at the southwest corner of McFarlane Road and Craig Road, just east of Fairchild Air Force Base.


Carstens says a buyer has agreed to buy 255 acres at that corner property, but he didnt have a signed contract as of late last week. He declines for now to disclose additional details.


Key says the company is performing its due-diligence research on the property and should know within three months whether the site will be a suitable location for the facility. Construction of such a facility might not start for anywhere from several months to a full year.


Mielke says the county commissioners were briefed on the distribution center because of its proximity to Fairchild. Development of large buildings next to Fairchild is limited, but Mielke says it appears that such a distribution center could be laid out on that property so that it would be outside of the zone where development is restricted.


A rail line runs along the north side of McFarlane Road, and the Geiger Spur rail line, which would replace a stretch of rail that currently runs through Fairchild, could cut through the edge of the proposed distribution facility site. A precise route for that rail spur hasnt been finalized yet, though.


A distribution facility as large as the one envisioned there would be more than twice the size of the massive Huntwood Industries Inc. plant recently built in Liberty Lake. At 1.2 million square feet of floor space, 27.5 acres would be under roof.


Its unclear how many people such a facility might employ. In a December 2005 press release about a planned distribution center in Barstow, Calif., however, Wal-Mart said that facility would employ 500 people initially and an additional 200 people within two years. The release didnt give the size of the planned Barstow building, though, so its unclear whether its comparable in size to the facility eyed here.


Wal-Mart currently operates three supercenter retail stores in the Spokane area and one in Post Falls. The company has proposed development of two additional Wal-Mart stores, one on Spokanes South Hill and one in Hayden, as well as a Sams Club, which would be located on Spokanes North Side.


Contact Linn Parish at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at linnp@spokanejournal.com.