Two retail chains have leased new sites in neighboring buildings at the southeast corner of Sprague Avenue and Sullivan Road in the Spokane Valley.


Hancock Fabrics Inc., a Tupelo, Miss.-based sewing and home-decorations retailer, has leased the 17,000-square-foot former Northwest Seed & Pet Inc. building, at 15530 E. Sprague. The other retail concern, Greenbacks Inc., a Salt Lake City-based discount-store chain, has leased a 12,000-square-foot space that had been part of a former Huckleberrys Fresh Market, at 15510 E. Sprague.


Jim Quigley, a Kiemle & Hagood Co. leasing agent who handled both transactions along with Carl Guenzel, also of that Spokane real estate concern, says both retailers hope to open outlets in those spaces by April, after some minor tenant improvements are completed.


Jeff Blyth, a Tupelo-based western regional real estate manager for Hancock Fabrics, says the company plans to move its current Valley store to the new quarters from a 15,000-square-foot space at 12105 E. Sprague, which is about two miles west of the new location. The fabric chain decided to change locations to take advantage of traffic along the Sullivan Road corridor and to increase its square footage, Blyth says.


Hancock Fabrics also operates an outlet on Spokanes North Side.


Guenzel says the planned Greenbacks All-A-Dollar store is expected to be that companys first outlet in the Spokane area. The company also is looking to open discount, or dollar, stores on Spokanes South Hill and in Coeur dAlene, though it hasnt secured sites for those outlets yet.


The space Greenbacks is taking adjoins a Walgreens Co. pharmacy outlet, which opened last year and takes the westernmost 17,000 square feet of floor space in the former Huckleberrys store.


The new tenants will fill space thats been vacant for some time. Rosauers Supermarkets Inc., of Spokane, which had operated the Huckleberrys specialty grocery store, closed that outlet in the summer of 1998, and Northwest Seed & Pet shut down its Valley store in fall 2000.