Wandermere Investments LLC, an investment company here of which Spokane developer Dick Vandervert is the managing member, has bought a Liberty Lake retail center for $4.8 million from Boise-based Cantlon Properties Inc.


The Spokane investment company hopes to start building an expansion later this year at the 70,000-square-foot Liberty Lake Town Center, which is anchored by an Albertsons Inc. grocery store and is located on Liberty Lake Road just south of the Liberty Lake-Interstate 90 interchange. Vandervert says there is enough land there to build an additional 37,000 square feet of floor space at the north end of the retail center, and Wandermere Investments will try to obtain commitments from lessees for that space immediately. It already is negotiating with a bank that is interested in building a branch office on the centers only available stand-alone commercial pad, Vandervert says.


He says Wandermere Investments, which also plans to develop a retail center north of Spokane called Wandermere Plaza, bought Liberty Lake Town Center because of the burgeoning amount of activity in that area.


We think its a good investment, he says. The Liberty Lake area probably has the fastest rate of growth in the area. Were on the brink of a business explosion out there.


A separate venture in which Vandervert is involved, called Sierra Development LLC, plans to build a retail center at Liberty Lake that could include up to 100,000 square feet of floor space initially. Construction on that project, which is to be built on 16 acres west of Liberty Lake Road, across from Liberty Lake Town Center, likely will start later this year, Vandervert says.


At Liberty Lake Town Center, developers built the Albertsons store about five years ago, and the additional retail space was added in 1996.


In addition to Albertsons, current tenants at the retail center include Moxie Restaurant, a Mail Boxes Etc. outlet, a Great Clips For Hair salon, a Take Two Video store, a General Nutrition Center, a Fitzbillies Bagel Bakery, and a Papa Murphys Pizza store. A McDonalds restaurant and a Taco Bell restaurant operate at stand-alone locations at the center.