Two Spokane businessmen plan to open a casino, restaurant, and bar in a prominent barn-shaped building at the northwest corner of Division Street and Francis Avenue on the citys North Side.


One of the businessmen, Jerry Heggestad, says he and partner Jack Duncan have leased the 4,500-square-foot structure, at 6301 N. Division, and hope to be open there by mid-July after some minor remodeling. The bar-restaurant operation will be called Club North, and the casino, called Aces Casino, will relocate there from Spokane Valley, he says. Altogether, the enterprise probably will employ about 100 people, he says.


We just felt its a real good location up there, Heggestad says.


The North Side building most recently was occupied by John Michaels Restaurant & Bar, which operated there for only about a year. Before that, it had housed a restaurant named Solicitors Corner for about eight years and the Country Cousin Barbeque & Sweetwater Saloon for 22 years.


The casino operation there will have seven blackjack tables and three poker tables, offering games such as Spanish 21, Fortune Pai Gow Poker, Three Card Poker, and Five Card Poker, Heggestad says. At the restaurant, which will be limited in size, with seating for about 50 people, Were going to serve prime rib, Mexican food, some steakskind of a variety, he says.


The establishment will be open only to those age 21 and over, and Heggestad says he wants it to be a professional-type-people place.


Heggestad and Duncan own a company called Southwest S&G Management Ltd., which operates Aces Sports Bar & Casino, at 10001 E. Sprague. They also own Players & Spectators, a 51,000-square-foot multipurpose complex at 12828 E. Sprague that includes a bowling alley, pizza-type kids arcade, and casino.


Aces has employed about 65 people at the Valley location, and Players & Spectators employs more than 200 people, he says. However, the Aces gaming operation in Spokane Valley planned to shut down last weekend, and Heggestad says he and his partner are converting that facility into a Mexican restaurant, with part of the space devoted to pool tables, a shuffleboard, dartboards, and other games, he says.