Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, has won a contract to build a $1 million gas station here for Fred Meyer Stores, and has started work on the project site near the retail chain's outlet in the East Central neighborhood, the Portland-based retail chain says.

The project is on an acre of land Fred Meyer has leased at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Thor Street, directly across Thor from the 140,000-square-foot store that the company opened in 2001, says Joy Hart, the owner of that property. Her family also assembled the eight-acre parcel on which the store is located.

Fred Meyer spokeswoman Melinda Merrill says the fueling station will include about 5,000 square feet of covered space and will have a sales kiosk with about 125 square feet of floor space. The station will have room to fuel 10 cars from five dispensers and will offer diesel fuel in addition to gasoline, she says.

The project is expected to be completed in November, Merrill says.

She says the fueling station will operate mostly with current employees of the Fred Meyer store there, although the store might hire one or two additional employees to work there.

"We usually run our fuel stations with existing employees, especially in these times, when all employees are looking for extra hours," she says.

Great Basin Engineering Inc., of Ogden, Utah, designed the project.

Fred Meyer Stores, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cincinnati-based supermarket chain Kroger Co., operates about 130 stores that sell food, clothing, housewares, home and garden supplies, and hardware.

The company operates five Fred Meyer outlets in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area, and it recently remodeled its Wandermere store, at 12120 N. Division here, and its Coeur d'Alene outlet at 650 W. Kathleen.