A Value Village thrift store will occupy the former Hastings music and bookstore space at 1704 W. Wellesley, near Shadle Park High School on Spokane’s North Side. 

A sign permit filed with the city on March 23 calls for four illuminated Value Village signs at the address.

A representative for the Bellevue, Wash.-based, for-profit thrift-store chain owner Savers Inc., which does business here as Value Village, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, Darcy Newton, project manager at Portland, Oregon-based Ramsay Signs, which is listed on the permit, confirms Value Village plans to open a store there.

According to Spokane County Assessor’s records, the 42,600-square-foot former Hastings space is part of a nearly 48,000-square-foot retail building that houses a Pizza Pipeline restaurant and B&B Driving School. The building is owned by Black Enterprises Inc., which NAI Black CEO Dave Black co-owns.

As previously reported by the Journal, the Spokane Public Facilities District has agreed to buy the Value Village thrift store site at 708 W. Boone in order to create a new, 500-stall surface parking lot that will serve Spokane Public Schools’ new $31 million-plus sports stadium, which is under construction near the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.

Savers is a privately held, for-profit company that operates more than 320 thrift stores in the U.S., Canada, and Australia that employ more than 19,000 people, its website says. 

The company also operates a Value Village store at 12205 E. Sprague, in Spokane Valley.

Amarillo, Texas-based Hastings Entertainment Inc. closed the Wellesley Avenue store and its 122 other store locations after declaring bankruptcy in 2016. Hastings also had stores on Spokane’s South Hill, in Spokane Valley, and Coeur d’Alene.

The former Hastings space has been leased to a Halloween Express store briefly each autumn since 2016, but the space has otherwise remained vacant.

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