JP Realty Inc., the Salt Lake City-based real estate investment trust that owns NorthTown Mall and Spokane Valley Mall, is moving forward with part of a previously announced expansion at NorthTown Mall, says G. Rex Frazier, the companys president and chief operating officer.


Sabey Corp., the Seattle-based former owner of NorthTown that has been hired as the general contractor for the project, has applied with the City of Spokane for building permits to construct 100,000 square feet of retail space and a 300,000-square-foot parking garage at the southwest corner of the shopping center.


Over the last week, a large portion of asphalt parking lot there has been torn out, and temporary fencing has been installed around the construction site.


The expansion is expected to be completed by next April, Frazier says.


It will be a welcome addition to the mall, and it will help to continue the companys dominance in that area, he says.


Frazier declines to disclose the cost of the projects, but city records list the estimated value of the two projects at about $15.5 million, $11.7 million for the three-level garage and $3.8 million for the retail space.


Three tenants will occupy the two-floor retail addition, Frazier says. Plans submitted with the city show a Barnes & Noble Booksellers store and a 12-screen Act III cinema complex as two of the tenants. The plans dont name the third tenant. Frazier declines to identify the company that will fill that space, but says its a ready-to-wear apparel store.


If the construction schedule remains on course, the theater complex will open around the same time that Kansas City, Mo.-based American Multi-Cinema Inc. is expected to open the final six screens in what will be a 20-screen theater complex in the River Park Square project in downtown Spokane.


The project is part of a $54 million mall expansion, which, in addition to the work getting under way now, calls for adding another 150,000 square feet of retail space and a second multi-level parking garage. Future plans also call for a streetscape setting along Division Street, with restaurants and smaller shops that would be accessible from the sidewalk.