Valley Equipment Co., a Salem, Ore.-based heavy-equipment sales, service, and fabrication concern, says it's opening an outlet on property it recently bought in East Spokane that formerly was owned and occupied by Spokane Machinery Co.

The purchased property, at 3730 E. Trent, includes a 29,800-square-foot building and 3 acres of land, says Roger Jensen, owner of Valley Equipment.

Jensen says the company's heavy-equipment dealership will handle the Westport Conn.-based Terex Corp. line of quarry and gravel-plant equipment. Such equipment includes rock crushers, screening machines, conveyers, and complete minerals processing systems used for sand and gravel production, mining industrial minerals, demolition, and recycling.

The dealership also will sell used equipment and offer service and repair work, as well as metal fabrication, Jensen says. The company currently is hiring and plans to employ up to 15 people at the East Spokane shop, he says.

Valley Equipment's flagship outlet was founded in Oregon's Willamette Valley more than 50 years ago, and Jensen's family bought it in the late 1970s, he says. In recent years, the company has landed some big sales that helped carry it through the recession, he says.

"We've been fortunate to pick up some good-sized projects," including equipment for a large rock quarry plant in Hawaii that Valley Equipment will ship later this year, Jensen says.

The company's market area here includes Eastern Washington, North Idaho, and Montana, he says.

"We like the Spokane area," Jensen says. "There's a lot of mining operations in the region, and we think we can fit in where former Spokane Machinery was."

Missoula-based Modern Machinery Co., which specializes in sales and rentals of new and used equipment and parts for the construction and logging industries, bought most of Spokane Machinery's assets early last year and moved them to its Spokane branch, at 4428 E. Trent.

Mark Lucas and Tracy Lucas, both of Spokane-based Kiemle & Hagood Co., handled the transaction for Valley Equipment's new outlet.