The planned expansion at NorthTown Mall has been delayed againthis time until after the first of next year, says G. Rex Frazier, president and chief operating officer of JP Realty Inc., the Salt Lake City-based company that bought NorthTown in August.


In June, Seattle-based Sabey Corp., the malls former owner, had said the estimated construction timetable for the $54 million expansion of the mall, which was unveiled last November, had been pushed back several months, but that work finally was about ready to begin. At that time, work on a sit-down restaurant called Pizzeria Uno was to begin within a week, construction of an addition that would house a 12-screen ACT III cinema complex and two other entertainment-related businesses was to start this fall, and building of a new 1,100-stall parking garage was to begin early next year.


Shortly after that, work did get under way on a space for Pizzeria Uno, which is to be one of two sit-down restaurants in the planned streetscape of businesses that would face Division Street on NorthTowns west side, but that restaurant project now faces some delays.


Things havent moved along as quickly as we would have liked, Frazier says of the Pizzeria Uno project. He declines to explain the reasons for the delay.


The rest of the expansion has been pushed back as well. The addition that is expected to house the cinema and two other businesses is still on the drawing board, Frazier says. We would have liked to get started this fall, but its looking like well get started right after the first of the year, he says.


It has been suggested that one of the two entertainment-related businesses slated to occupy the planned addition was Barnes & Noble, the bookstore chain. Frazier claims that the bookstore chain is committed to the project, but as for when they physically signwell let them announce that.


Rachel El-Yafi, a New York-based spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, says the bookstore doesnt have any planned store openings in Spokane at this time.