What used to be the boonies north of Spokane is booming with activity.


Development is forging farther northward, away from well-establishedand still bustlingretail centers like NorthTown Mall and the Northpointe Plaza shopping center.


Developers say new homes are being built at an accelerated pace to the north, and small towns farther out now largely are serving as bedroom communities to Spokane. Both factorsand the ensuing traffic increases they generateare attracting serious looks from retailers.


Ive never seen so much housing activity on the North Side as there is right now, says prominent Spokane developer Dick Vandervert. Thats where all the action is, and thats where all of the retailers want to be.


When Northpointe Plaza and Wandermere Mall were built in the late 1980s, they represented the northern frontier of Spokane retailing. Now, a big development is under way a mile north of Northpointe along U.S. 2, another one is being eyed farther north at Hatch Road and U.S. 395, and yet another is planned several miles to the north, in Deer Park. Another project, near U.S. 2 and Mount Spokane Park Drive, has yet to get rolling.


Vandervert is leading development of Pine Water Plaza, the 24-acre development at U.S. 2 and Nevada Street, a mile north of Northpointe. That development eventually is expected to include 120,000 square feet of retail space and to cost about $20 million to construct. Also, the YMCA of the Inland Northwest has bought 16 acres there and plans to build a North Side facility, similar in scope to its 5-year-old Spokane Valley facility.


Vandervert Construction Inc. recently completed work on the first $1.3 million, multitenant retail building there and plans to start work soon on a Wheatland Bank branch near the complexs entrance. Six to eight big-box retailers currently are interested in the site as a potential location for new stores, Vandervert says. Obviously, he says, he wont have room to accommodate all of them, but hopes to ink a couple of them soon.


Work at Pine Water Plaza follows development by another Vandervert-led group of Wandermere West, a six-building, 10-acre retail complex at the northwest corner of U.S. 395 and Hastings Road.


Another project a few miles to the north is in the planning stages and might not get under way this year, but could be yet an additional major retail presence in north Spokane County.


In that project, the Cordill Family Trust, of Spokane, wants to develop a multiuse complex, to be called Midway Plaza, on 36 acres at the northeast corner of U.S. 395 and Hatch Road. As envisioned, the project would include a mix of retail, office, and multifamily-residential development and could cost about $30 million to complete.


Terry Snow, a Spokane attorney and trustee of the trust, says the proposed development has received community commercial zoning that would allow it to move forward, but the trust wants a regional commercial designation that would give it more latitude in the retail portion of the development. He says the trust has appealed the original zoning decision to the Spokane County commissioners, and hopes to receive a decision from that board soon.


Snow says the project likely will get rolling after the zoning appeal is resolved and an anchor tenant steps forward. He expects that the project will be anchored by a supermarket and says that in recent months, four different grocery chains have performed feasibility studies on the site. One of those companies told Snow that its study showed enough nearby residences and a high enough traffic count to justify opening a store there.


Snow says, however, that current industry dynamics might prevent such a tenant from stepping forward right now.


Im under the impression that retail grocery stores are overbuilt in the Spokane market, he says. Ive been told theres a moratorium on new stores here by a couple of supermarket chains.


Meanwhile, about 10 miles north of that development, in Deer Park, WAM Enterprises Inc. plans to break ground this month on its first project in the 12-acre Deer Park Fairgrounds site.


The Spokane development company has bought a one-acre parcel on which it plans to build the first 10,000-square-foot structure in the project and has agreed to buy the rest of the site this fallafter one last fair is held there.


Bruce Miller, vice president of WAM Enterprises, says that tenants have said they will take half of the space in the planned multitenant structure. He says one retailer that already has a presence in Deer Park has committed to taking space there, and another thats seeking its first location in the town of 3,000 people has signed a lease. Miller declines to name those future tenants.


Even though WAM hasnt completed its purchase of the remaining 11-acre site, the company has agreed to sell just over an acre there to a buyer who wants to build an office building, Miller says.


From my perspective, Deer Park hasnt seen the development that would be typical for a town like it, he says. There are a number of retailers knocking on doors looking for locations. Were opening the door for them.


In the past, some retailers have balked at going far north.


Another retail development had been planned about five years ago at the northwest corner of U.S. 2 and Mount Spokane Park Drive, a couple miles northeast of Pine Water Plaza, but the expected anchor, Albertsons Inc., pulled out.


Lincoln Partners LLC, of Spokane, had planned a 144,000-square-foot center there and had a couple of other tenants inked, but all pulled out when Albertsons delayed construction. Attempts to reach developer Joe Stanek, who headed up Lincoln Partners, were unsuccessful.


North of there, at the southeast corner of U.S. 2 and Day-Mount Spokane Road, Spokane County has approved a binding site plan for another commercial development that includes 12 lots on seven acres of land.


Developers say, however, that the population is increasing farther north, and with more people commuting to Spokane, the numbers justify retail development now.


Well draw people from 10 miles away at this site, Snow says of Midway Plaza.


Some traffic numbers suggest that some areas north of Spokane are among the busiest in the metropolitan area.


According to last years traffic counts conducted by the Washington state Department of Transportation and local governments, about 36,300 cars pass through the U.S. 395-Hastings Road intersection daily. Thats comparable to traffic flow at the busy Argonne Road-Montgomery Avenue intersection in Spokane Valley and at the Hamilton Street-Mission Avenue intersection.


By comparison, five years ago, traffic counts at the U.S. 395-Hastings intersection fell well short of those at the two more urban junctions.