Spokane developer Joe Stanek says he is developing a $7 million to $8 million shopping center at the northwest corner of U.S. 2 and Mount Spokane Park Drive in the Mead area that apparently will be anchored by an Albertsons Inc. supermarket.


The project, which will be located on a 10-acre parcel, is expected to include a 57,500-square-foot Albertsons store, an attached, 13,000-square-foot retail building, and four commercial pads that are envisioned to house such users as a fast-food restaurant, a bank branch, and automotive-related businesses, says Stanek. Lincoln Partners LLC, A Spokane partnership that is owned by Stanek and his three bothers, Steve, Tim, and Frank, owns the site.


Don Duncombe, a Portland-based divisional real estate manager for Boise-based Albertsons, said that the big grocery chain was in the documentation stage of finalizing a ground lease for a store building site in the Staneks planned shopping center. We have pretty well approved plans to construct a store there, he says.


Duncombe says Albertsons would like to open a store there within in the next year or so, but no construction schedule has been determined thus far. Stanek describes the start of the overall shopping center work as imminent.


The Albertsons store might become the first supermarket in the Spokane area to sell gasoline. Albertsons is considering constructing a fueling station that would be located on the southeast portion of the shopping centers parking lot. Anne Alenskis, a spokeswoman for Albertsons in Boise, says the big grocery chain operates several other such stations at supermarkets in Oklahoma, Arizona, and near Boise. She says the chains filling stations have attendants on duty during store hours and in some cases sell snacks and other convenience items, but wouldnt carry as much inventory as a convenience store. Patrons would be able to buy gas with a credit card at the pump 24 hours a day.


The planned shopping center is located on the same site as a project proposed by another development group about three years ago, and is kitty corner across U.S. 2 from a site where a similar-sized center was proposed around the same time. Neither of those projects materialized. Stanek says Lincoln Partners bought the site of his planned center in May. He says the property already is zoned for the planned shopping center.


A preliminary site plan for the development shows that the supermarket would be located on the far western end of the property and would face U.S. 2. The planned 13,000-square-foot retail building, which could house one or several tenants, would be attached to the supermarkets north side and also would face the highway. Three of the four pad sites would be located along the sites frontage on U.S. 2, with the fourth pad site set back somewhat from the sites northern edge.


Stanek says that to provide access to the shopping center, the partnership will construct a new road to be called Highland Road that will serve as an extension of Mount Spokane Park Drive to the west of U.S. 2. The Washington state Department of Transportation also is making other improvements to the intersection, which already is signaled, he says.


Stanek says he is negotiating with potential tenants for the 13,000-square-foot strip retail building and the pad sites, each of which will range in size from 2,500 to 5,000 square feet of space. In addition to a possible fast-food outlet and a bank branch, the pad sites are envisioned to house perhaps a tire retailer and an automotive lube and oil-change service, but other types of tenants will be considered as well, Stanek says.