Old Dominion Freight Line Inc., a national trucking company based in Thomasville, N.C., says it plans to erect a $3.6 million, 18,000-square-foot terminal in Spokane Valley and move its Spokane operations there from space it currently leases.

The building-permit application for the terminal, to be located at 4101 N. Barker Road, is under review, says Mike Turbak, permit specialist with the city of Spokane Valley. The terminal, which the company also calls a service center, is to be constructed on vacant land west of Barker Road, about a quarter-mile south of Trent Avenue. The structure would have 4,000 square feet of office space and 14,000 square feet of warehouse space, Turbak says.

Furst Construction Co., of South Jordan, Utah, would be the general contractor on the structure, he says. J.M. Williams & Associates Inc., of Salt Lake City, Utah, designed the project.

Larry Panzeri, Old Dominion's sales and service center manager here, says the company's current leased terminal is at 3417 E. Springfield, just west of Freya Street on the south side of the BNSF Railway Co. tracks, and has 28 truck docks.

Work on the Spokane Valley project likely will start next spring, assuming the building permit is approved, Panzeri says.

Old Dominion would own the new terminal, which would have 30 truck docks, he says, adding, "The office is where our real challenge is, now." The office staff currently operates out of portable buildings, Panzeri says.

The company employs 22 people here, which will remain the same when the Spokane operations move, he says.

It specializes in transporting nonrefrigerated goods for customers with shipments of less than a truckload in volume.

The terminal serves the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area, as well as Pullman, Wash., and the Idaho cities of Moscow and Lewiston.

Old Dominion's Web site says the 75-year-old company operates 210 service centers nationwide. It has 10,700 employees, 5,500 trucks, more than 21,000 trailers, and ships across the lower 48 U.S. states, Canada, and Mexico, the Web site says.

Although freight volume is down nationwide this year, the company's shipping volume had been growing at double-digit rates for several previous years, and the company expects it to continue to grow, Panzeri says.