Spokane County officials have accepted a site plan, and have required traffic improvements, for an 18-lot commercial development proposed for the northeast corner of U.S. 395 and Hatch Road, north of Spokane.


The development, to be called Midway Plaza, was first proposed by the Cordill Family Trust, of Spokane, in 2004, and was envisioned at the time to include up to 120,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, plus a multifamily housing project. The complex was to include a 60,000-square-foot supermarket, strip retail space, up to four free-standing retail pads, and eight parcels for office buildings. The housing project was to be built on the south side of Hatch, across from the rest of the development.


The site plan tentatively accepted by the county Building and Planning Department recently includes just the 28-acre first phase of that larger, 36-acre proposal. That action allows the family trust to seek tenants and financing for that phase of the development, which will allow up to 85,000 square feet of floor space, says Stacy Bjordahl, an attorney representing the trust.


Ideally, well be looking for a grocery store, which will be a large anchor tenant, Bjordahl says, adding, A gas station would be suitable there as well.


Other potential tenants would be neighborhood-oriented businesses, perhaps including a day-care center, a coffee shop, and a restaurant, she says.


At other centers, they tend to follow grocery stores, she says.


The site-plan approval requires the developer to install left-turn lanes on Hatch Road, which runs generally east-west as it crosses U.S. 395 there. Prior to any further development at the site, the developer would need to complete traffic studies on the U.S. 395 access ramps there, as well as on Hatch and a frontage road.


The project site is located about two and a half miles north of the Wandermere Shopping Center, and is near several established suburban neighborhoods, including the Gleneden, Blackhawk, and Wellington developments. It also is about two miles north of where the new North Spokane Corridor, or north-south freeway, will intersect with U.S. 395.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at [email protected].