Cost Plus Inc., an Oakland, Calif.-based retail chain that sells home decor and imported specialty items, says its eyeing several Spokane-area properties to find a site for an outlet it might open here by late next year.


Melissa Oldenbourg, Cost Plus spokeswoman, says Spokane is one of 20 communities in the West and Midwest that the retail chain is considering for new stores. She says the company expects to choose 15 of those locations for new stores that it hopes to open in 1998. Cost Plus currently operates 70 stores in 12 states, including four in the Seattle area. Its stores operate under the name Cost Plus World Market.


Oldenbourg confirmed that in Spokane, Cost Plus is considering a commercial site at the northwest corner of Division Street and Dalke Avenue on the North Side as a potential location for a store here. That 2.1-acre site is owned by the Tombari Enterprises Limited Partnership. The partnership recently received zoning approval from the city of Spokane to construct a 19,600-square-foot retail building with an attached 5,160-square-foot strip mall on that property. Representatives of the partnership could not be reached for comment.


Oldenbourg says the company also is looking at several other potential sites here, which she declines to name. She says Cost Plus is planning only one Spokane-area store.


A typical Cost Plus World Market outlet has about 19,000 square feet of floor space and employs about 30 people on a full- and part-time basis. It offers more than 10,000 home-furnishing and entertainment items imported from 50 countries around the world.


Cost Plus World Market stores carry a variety of gift items, and gourmet foods. Among the items they typically sell are hand-crafted iron candlesticks from India, hand-carved masks from Ghana, wood furniture from Indonesia, and hand-painted ceramics from Italy. They also usually stock 18 varieties of olive oil, more than 100 types of beer, and a selection of 500 wines.


Cost Plus was founded in 1958. The publicly-traded company had sales of about $215 million in its fiscal year 1996.