Phillips Edison Development Co., a division of Cincinnati-based Phillips Edison & Co., says it plans to build a 500,000-square-foot shopping center on 50 acres of land near Post Falls.


The company says it has agreed to buy the land, located at the northeast corner of state Route 41 and Prairie Avenue, for an undisclosed sum from Vision First LLC, of Eagle, Idaho. The property is part of 150 acres at that corner Vision First planned to develop.


Phillips Edison says it expects the shopping center to include a grocery store and big-box retailers as well as restaurants and specialty stores. The company says it will seek annexation of the site by the city of Post Falls early next year.


Post Falls doesnt have central core shopping, says Monte Risvold, director of commercial real estate and development services for Re/Max of Spokane and owner of Risvold Consulting, of Coeur dAlene. Risvold, who is representing Vision First in the sale, says the asking price for the land was $10 million, but declines to disclose the sale price.


Phillips Edison says it owns and manages more than 220 shopping centers in 34 states. In addition to its Cincinnati headquarters, the company has offices in Baltimore and Salt Lake City.


Risvold says Phillips Edison has indicated it wants to begin construction by next fall, and hopes to have the center ready for retailers by the summer of 2009.


The center is expected to anchor the Prairie Crossing development, a large mixed-use community on both sides of Prairie Avenue that is part of the even larger Tullamore development that Vision First has been planning. Risvold says construction of homes is just getting under way in the residential part of the development. He says Vision First still owns about 100 acres surrounding the 50-acre Phillips Edison site, 10 acres of which it intends to turn over to the Post Falls School District. Risvold says Vision First owns or has sold a total of 500 acres in that area.


About a year ago, Vision First sold 15 acres at the southeast corner of Prairie and SR 41 to Parkwood Business Properties, of Coeur dAlene, for a possible future development of a business center, Risvold says. In April, that property and 85 additional acres there were annexed by Post Falls.