Work has begun to rebuild the east end of a strip retail center at Heritage Village, a shopping center near the Division Street Y in North Spokane.


The shopping centers owner, Heritage Village Partnership, also plans within the next two years to modernize the faade of the entire strip center, which currently houses an Oak Mill furniture store and a Loulous sporting-goods store, says Mark Pinch, president of Tomlinson Black Commercial Inc., of Spokane, and one of four partners in Heritage Village Partnership.


The shopping center occupies a triangular piece of land, just north of the Division Street Y formed by Division and the Newport Highway. The strip center that the partnership plans to update is located along the northern base of the triangle. In addition to the strip center, Heritage Village also includes a Rite-Aid store, a McDonalds fast-food outlet, and a small retail building that houses a Supercuts outlet.


Vacant retail spaces on the east end of the strip center already have been torn down. In their place, Vandervert Construction Inc., the Spokane contractor, is building 7,900 square feet of space that will house five tenants, Pinch says. That project, which was designed by Spokane-based Bernardo-Wills Architects PC, is expected to cost about $600,000, he says. It should be completed by mid-February.


Pinch says tenants already have been secured for three of the five planned retail spaces in the new portion of the strip center. Starbucks Corp., of Seattle, has leased space at the far east end of the new addition for a coffee shop, which will have indoor seating and a covered drive-up window, he says. A new Spokane Southwestern-style restaurant, thats to be called Baja Grill, will occupy the far west end of the new addition, while a Wiser Wireless retail outlet will take the center retail space, leaving two available spaces on either side of it.


Within the next two years, the partnership plans to modernize the faade of the rest of the strip center so that it will have a look thats uniform with the east side of the center, which Vandervert currently is rebuilding, Pinch says.


The partnership also plans to raze a structure just east of the Rite-Aid store, which was constructed a year ago, at the southern point of the shopping center property. That building, which currently houses a Supercuts outlet, is being removed to make room for additional parking for Rite-Aid customers, Pinch says. He says the building will be torn down after Supercuts lease expires next year.


Buildings that had housed a Chapter Eleven restaurant and a Skippers Seafood N Chowder House restaurant both were razed last year to make way for the Rite-Aid project.


Meanwhile, Heritage Village Partnership spent about $150,000 last year on improvements to the interior of the 17,000-square-foot Oak Mill furniture store on the west end of the strip center, Pinch says. That work was completed by Baker Construction, of Spokane, he says.


The McDonalds restaurant, located on the eastern edge of the shopping center, between the strip center and the Supercuts building, will remain in its current location.


In addition to Pinch, partners in Heritage Village Partnership include Dave Black, CEO of Tomlinson Black Commercial, and Paul Hawkins and Dick Edwards, who co-own Hawkins Edwards Inc. here.