If development activity is any indicator, Interstate 90 is becoming the new Sprague Avenue in the Spokane Valley.


The I-90 corridor from about Pines Road east to Liberty Lake has seen a host of construction projects in the past year, and several more apparently are in the works, including a 50,000-square-foot retail outlet planned by Flooring Sales Group LLC, of Coeur dAlene.


Spokane developer Raymond Hanson, who owns about 70 acres along Indiana Avenue east and west of the Spokane Valley Mall, says four or five new businesses will be going up along that stretch by the end of the year.


A short distance to the east, in Liberty Lake, six more businesses are in various stages of planning possible new structures along the four miles of freeway that run through that city, says Doug Smith, the city of Liberty Lakes director of planning and community development.


From those six, I would guess that three will actually materialize, and maybe one will break ground this year, says Smith.


Spokane developer and contractor John Miller, of Divcon Inc., says freeway visibility is a major reason why activity along the corridor is increasing.


I-90 does for businesses now what Sprague Avenue did for businesses at an earlier time, says Miller. Businesses are gravitating toward the freeway. I think that freeway visibility and access are huge issues. However, controlling signage along that stretch will be a future battle.


Both Smith and Hanson decline to disclose which businesses are looking at projects along the corridor.


Hanson did suggest that a mixture of retail space, office space, a restaurant, and possibly a hotel were being considered on his property. Smith wouldnt elaborate on the types of projects being eyed in Liberty Lake, but did say the six proposed projects dont include the already announced 102,000-square-foot Home Depot Inc. store to be built south of the freeway near Country Vista Drive. He anticipates that project will be constructed this year.


Hanson is confident the planned projects on his Indiana Avenue property, which at one time stretched from just east of Pines to about Flora Road, will materialize.


Some deals are completed, and others are nearly completed, he says, declining to comment further on them.


Flooring Sales Group has requested a pre-application conference with the city of Spokane Valley to build a Great Floors retail outlet on former Hanson property next to the new ITT Technical Institute building, which opened in November at 13518 E. Indiana. Flooring Sales Group operates 15 stores in Washington and Idaho, including stores on Spokanes North Side in on East Sprague in Spokane Valley.


One project already under way on land bought from Hanson is the $4.4 million Indiana Professional Center, which is being developed by Indiana Investment LLC, of Spokane, at 15920 E. Indiana, near the Sullivan Road interchange.


Ramey Construction Co., of Spokane, has started site work on the project, which will be a two-story, 28,000-square-foot office building thats expected to house from six to 10 tenants. It will be located two lots east of the 26,000-square-foot Premier Professional Building that Ramey built for Premier Investments LLC last year on land also acquired from Hanson. Windermere/Valley Inc. is the anchor tenant in that building, which has three other tenants and is now fully occupied.


Also currently being built on former Hanson land is Hooters Restaurant & Owl Club Casino, a local affiliate of the Atlanta-based restaurant chain. That planned restaurant and casino is being constructed by Spokane Wings LLC, of Oceanside, Calif., at 16208 E. Indiana. The nearly 14,000-square-foot establishment is expected to open in early July, says Roger Jillackey, Hooters construction manager on the project.


ITT Technical Institute Director Bill King says proximity to the interstate was a major factor when it was decided where to build the technical colleges new 28,000-square-foot building, which serves about 400 students. We, as a corporation, now have 77 schools and tend to locate in high-visibility locations, he says.


Not all the current and planned activity along the corridor is commercial. A Spokane company called River Rock LLC is awaiting permit approval from the city of Spokane Valley to build a 168-unit apartment complex just east of Pines and north of Indiana. To be called the Shannon Apartments, the planned $10.5 million complex will be located at 12805 E. Shannon, north of I-90. The project should get under way this year, says Chris Ashenbrener, who owns River Rock with Bill Lawson. Ashenbrener says a second phase of work, with another about 200 apartment units, is expected to follow.


He says he and Lawson didnt buy the property from Hanson, but accumulated it in small chunks over time.


Further west, near the Argonne interchange, the University of Phoenix last month opened its new Spokane branch campus at 8775 E. Mission. Divcon built the 12,000-square-foot facility.


Investing in the future


Hanson, a longtime industrialist here, says that in 1979 he bought 225 acres of irrigated wheat land that stretched for about two and a half miles and was situated roughly between the freeway and the Spokane River. Included in that purchase was land that he later sold for development of the Spokane Valley Mall, west of Sullivan.


Over the years, Hanson says he has sold over half of the western end of that long stretch of freeway frontage, but still owns about a one-mile stretch.


We now like to build and rent, says Hanson, who declines to elaborate on the specific financial arrangements on the projects he expects to take place on his land this year. Some of them are leased, he says. We prefer to retain ownership. Mostly we like to collect rent.


Hanson sees a need for another hotel along that stretch of the freeway. He says the 3-and 4-year-old Oxford Suites and Residence Inn by Marriott in the immediate area are absolutely booked.


In decades past, the Sprague Avenue corridor saw much of the new construction activity in the Spokane Valley, mostly centered around its intersections with such busy north-south thoroughfares as Argonne Road, Pines, and Sullivan, but also including the once-vibrant University City Shopping Center.


This is the center of the valley now, says Hanson of his stretch of the I-90 corridor.