URM Stores Inc. says it plans to award a $4.6 million construction contract to Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, for a 70,000-square-foot facility it plans to build on the West Plains for Peirone Produce Co., which URM owns.

Dean Sonnenberg, CEO of Spokane-based URM, says the grocery-distribution cooperative's board probably will approve the contract with Vandervert next week.

The contractor will be ready to start work on the project next week and expects to complete it within 165 days, says Tim Stulc, vice president of Vandervert Construction.

The facility will be developed on a 10-acre site at 9818 W. Hallett Road, just east of the Interstate 90-Medical Lake interchange, next to an Inland Power & Light Co. complex.

Stulc says the project will include a large structure to be built with insulated concrete tilt-up panels to house refrigerated produce, plus adjoining offices and a separate 6,000-square-foot truck-maintenance facility.

Lindquist Architects PS, of Spokane Valley, designed the project. The new facility will replace Peirone Produce's current complex, which is on leased land at 524 E. Trent that's owned by Washington State University. The city of Spokane expects to start work next year on an extension of Riverside Avenue that will pass near that site, which is at the southeast corner of the Riverpoint Campus.

Peirone Produce plans to move its refrigeration equipment into the new facility from the Trent Avenue location next winter, when cold outside temperatures will help preserve produce during the transition, Stulc says.

Peirone Produce was founded in 1946 by Joe Peirone, who sold the company to URM in 1986. It supplies fresh fruits and vegetables to retail and institutional customers throughout the Northwest, and employs about 100 people.

URM serves about 155 stores and owns the Rosauers Supermarkets Inc. chain, Huckleberry's Natural Markets, and four Super 1 Foods stores. The cooperative operates a 675,000-square-foot distribution center, at 7511 N. Freya, and has said it plans to expand it by 150,000 square feet when economic conditions improve.