Smart & Final Inc., a publicly held company based in Los Angeles, has inked a deal to open a cash-and-carry warehouse grocery store on North Division in the Northgate Shopping Center.


Marshall Clark, owner of Clark Pacific Real Estate Co., says Smart & Final has leased 36,000 square feet of space in the same building as a Michaels Stores Inc. craft outlet at the shopping center. The cash-and-carry initially will occupy only the front 23,000 square feet of space there, leaving the remaining 13,000 square feet of space for storage, he says. Clark Pacific Real Estate handled the lease transaction.


A general contractor currently is being sought to make tenant improvements to the space, Clark says. He says that work is expected to begin soon.


The store will operate under the name United Grocers Cash & Carry. Bruce Varney, director of marketing for Smart & Finals cash-and-carry division, says the stores opening hasnt been set yet. It will be the companys first store in Spokane, and its 16th store in Washington. It likely will employ about six people here initially, he says.


Smart & Final operates two types of stores: Smart & Final stores and cash-and-carry stores, the company says. Cash-and-carry stores offer canned foods, produce, frozen and delicatessen items, paper products, and restaurant and janitorial supplies in institutional sizes and quantities for restaurant and food-service customers, who must have a retail license to shop at the store. It operates other such stores in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Northern California.


The companys Smart & Final stores offer products similar to those offered at its cash-and-carry stores, but serve a broader customer base, including food operators, small businesses, clubs and organizations, and value-oriented customers. Smart & Final stores are located in California, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, and Mexico, the company says.


Smart & Final, which operates more than 200 stores overall, had total sales of $1.8 billion for fiscal year 1999, which ended Jan. 2, 2000, the company says.


Meanwhile, other changes are planned at Northgate Shopping Center, Clark says. As previously announced, Richmond, Va.-based Heilig-Meyers Co. plans to close its store there, along with its Spokane Valley store and another 300 stores nationwide, as part of a corporate restructuring related to the chains filing for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.


When the Northgate Heilig-Meyers store closes at the end of the year, it will leave about 40,400 square feet of space vacant at the shopping center, Clark says. The Heilig-Meyers store is located south of where the new cash-and-carry store will open.


Clark says that space might not be vacant for long, though, because the bankruptcy court plans to hold an auction in mid-November that could allow another national furniture chain to take over the leases of all of the Heilig-Meyers stores in this region.


Just south of the Heilig-Meyers store is a six-screen movie theater property thats owned and operated by Regal Cinemas, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based theater chain that operates several theater complexes here.


Clark says he understands that Regal is trying to sell that property, and the property currently is being eyed by a Christian book and gift store.


He says that Clark Pacific Real Estate isnt involved in that potential transaction, though. Attempts to reach Regal Cinemas were unsuccessful.


I think theres going to be some really positive changes at Northgate, Clark says. He describes the six-screen movie theater as a parking hog and says that a different type of business there should help regulate traffic in the parking area.


At the southernmost end of Northgate is a 27,000-square-foot strip center, called Cascade Plaza. Within that center, Little Italy Pizza & Pasta is moving about five retail spaces east to an expanded location, Clark says.


John Schilling, a restaurant employee and the son of the restaurant owner, James Schilling, says the expanded location, which has about 4,000 square feet of space, will seat about three times as many people as the current restaurant, which seats about 30 people. He says the expanded location also has a small area that can be used as a dance floor or as a stage for banquets.


Little Italy, which has been located at 7442 N. Division for seven years, plans to move into the nearby space in about a month.