Whitefish, Mont.-based Glacier Restaurant Group LLC plans to open a MacKenzie River Pizza Co. restaurant in north Coeur d'Alene following a $500,000 remodel of a 6,800-square-foot building formerly occupied by another restaurant there.

The restaurant will be the 13th MacKenzie River Pizza outlet, but will be the first outside of Montana, says Ryan Fuller, Glacier Restaurant Group's director of training and development. It will be located across U.S. 95 from the Silver Lake Mall, at 405 W. Canfield, the former site of America's Cheesecake Caf, which closed last February.

Fuller describes the remodel as a "major facelift, inside and out."

Hammerquist Casalegno Construction LLC, of Kalispell, is the general contractor on the project, and Jackola Engineering & Architecture PC, also of Kalispell, designed it.

"It will have a Montana-themed atmosphere with lots of lodgepole and fishing gear," Fuller says.

He says the restaurant is scheduled to open in January. It will hire 65 to 85 employees and begin training them in mid-December.

In addition to a variety of classic and original pizza combinations the menu will include pasta, sandwiches, and salads, Fuller says.

Glacier Restaurant Group also has four Ciao Mambo restaurants, including one that opened last year in Hayden Creek Plaza, a retail center in Hayden. Additionally, the restaurant group owns Craggy Range Bar & Grill, in Whitefish, Mont.