CLC Restaurants Inc., of Missoula, Mont., has bought the five remaining corporate-owned Taco Bell outlets in the Spokane area from Taco Bell Corp., of Irvine, Calif., in a transaction that closed in December.


The franchisee bought a total of six Taco Bells, including the outlets here and a store in Moses Lake, for more than $3 million, says company owner and president Craig Langel.


CLC Restaurants, which manages its Spokane and North Idaho operations as CLC Northwest Inc. from an office in Post Falls, now owns a total of 29 Taco Bells in Eastern Washington, North Idaho, and Montana. Sixteen of those are in what CLC calls its Spokane-area market. Three of the outlets are two-in-one restaurants, including a combination Kentucky Fried Chicken and A&W Family Restaurant in Post Falls, a Taco Bell and KFC restaurant in Colville, and a Taco Bell and KFC outlet in Moscow, Idaho.


CLC now employs a total of 500 people at its 29 outlets.


Taco Bell sold the rest of the Spokane-area outlets to CLC because operating costs were higher for the corporation than for the franchisee, Langel says.


They felt we were in a position to run the stores efficiently, he says. It made more sense to have those stores blended into what we have.


Taco Bell Corp. hasnt built a new outlet here for several years, Langel says. The corporation, which gave CLC an award last year for its high operating standards, has pulled out of the Spokane market as CLC gradually has added stores, he says.


CLC has built six new Taco Bell outlets since it launched operations here in 1997 when it opened two new Taco Bells. It had started out 10 years earlier with one store in Montana. It acquired two outlets from Taco Bell Corp. in 1998, and since then, has grown steadily through additional acquisitions and construction, Langel says.


CLC will continue to expand its business by building more Taco Bell outlets at two or three possible sites in the Spokane and North Idaho metropolitan areas within the next few years, he says.


This summer or fall it plans to remodel a Taco Bell outlet at 6604 N. Division. That outlet will be the first in the Spokane market to receive the corporate-required upgrades, which will completely revamp the stores look, Langel says.


In the quick-service restaurant industry, restaurants get 15 to 20 years old, and the franchiser says we have to have a new image, he says. Instead of tearing the store down or moving, what they do is totally remodel the store, taking the building from its current image to an updated image.


CLC completed one of the first of those upgrades last year at a Taco Bell outlet in Billings, Mont., Langel says. After the outlet on Division is remodeled, CLC likely will upgrade two more outlets in Spokane sometime in the next few years, he says.


CLC hasnt awarded a contract for the North Side upgrade project yet, but the company previously has used Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, to build all of the outlets it has opened here.


Though CLC will continue expanding here, the company doesnt plan to buy any of the corporate-owned Taco Bell outlets outside the Inland Northwest.


We really like being in the Spokane market, he says. Its been good to us.


CLC, which received financing for the six-store acquisition through the First Security Bank of Missoula, is a family-owned business, Langel says. His brother, Ken, works as the district manager for the companys Spokane-area operations in Post Falls, and another brother, Roger, manages the maintenance department there. Langels sister, son, and daughter also work for the company.


Taco Bell Corp. is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands Inc., a Louisville, Ky.-based company that operates more than 30,000 Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Long John Silvers, and A&W restaurants worldwide.