Lakeshore Investment Corp., of Seattle, says it plans to develop a roughly $1.8 million retail center, named Whitworth Square, near the southeast corner of Division Street and Hawthorne Road east of Whitworth College.


To make way for the 22,000-square-foot center, the Seattle company is demolishing a mixed-use facility it owns on a four-acre site near that intersection.


That building formerly had housed a 15,000-square-foot distribution center operated by Familian Northwest Inc., a Newport News, Va.-based mechanical- and industrial-supply distributor. The rest of the 19,000-square-foot building housed Heads First Salon, Beyond Beads North, and a Pizza Pipeline Inc. outlet.


Lakeshore Investment hasnt signed any tenants yet for its new center, but a number of companies have expressed interest in leasing space there, says Craig Soehren, a commercial real estate agent with Spokane-based Kiemle & Hagood Co. He says that he and Carl Guenzel, who are marketing the space together, nearly have completed lease negotiations with two companies that would occupy 7,200 square feet of space in the center. Soehren declines for now to disclose the names of those potential lessees.


Bernardo-Wills Architects PC, of Spokane, designed the center, and Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor for the project.


Tim Putnam, business-development coordinator for Bernardo-Wills, says the retail center will have space for three mid-size businesses and four smaller businesses. Also, Lakeshore Investment might develop a 3,500-square-foot pad there for a bank or fast-food restaurant, he says.


Allen Gray, president of Lakeshore Investment, says the company decided to develop a structure on the site because the mixed-use building is more than 40 years old and the site needs to be redeveloped.


Lakeshore Investment, which will own and operate the new retail center, bought the older building in the early 1960s, when it was occupied by a grocery store, Gray says.


The most recent tenants vacated the building last month.


Mike Kight, president and CEO of Pizza Pipeline, says the company is negotiating to lease new space for its outlet within a half-mile radius of its old location. The company has shifted the 20 employees who were working there to its outlets elsewhere, and will move them to a new North Side location within two to three months, he says.


Linda Black, owner of Heads First Salon, says her shop has moved to a retail center, at 9916 N. Waikiki, where it has leased about 600 square feet of space.


Cindy Majeski, owner of Beyond Beads North, says her store has moved to 7452 N. Division, where it has leased about 3,400 square feet of space.


Majeski says her daughter, Cheyenne Majeski, who owns an espresso stand called Just Brew It that was located just north of the mixed-use building, will move that stand to 8213 N. Market soon.


A Shell Oil Co. gas station at the intersection of Division and Hawthorne wont be affected by the construction.


Danny Miller, general manager of Familian Northwests 10 branches in Eastern Washington and North Idaho, says Familian has moved to a new 12,000-square-foot building in north Spokane, at 10808 N. Perry, constructed recently by Spokane-based Citadel Construction Inc.


Last August, Familian merged with its sister company, Ferguson Enterprises Inc., also of Newport News, Va., and took that companys name, he says.


Ferguson is leasing the building on Perry from owner Walter Knopp for its distribution center, Miller says.


Ferguson employs seven people at that building, which serves as a warehouse.