A company headed by Spokane developer Dick Vandervert has bought an old United Furniture Warehouse building on Spokanes North Side and is remodeling it with hopes of landing a new retail tenant for the property.


The building is located at the northwest corner of U.S. 2 and Hawthorne Road, north of and across U.S. 2 from the Northpointe Plaza Shopping Center. The old furniture-store building initially included 20,750 square feet of floor space, but Vandervert says demolition is under way on the eastern half of the structure to allow for more parking.


The remaining structure will have about 11,000 square feet of floor space and will receive a brick veneer.


Were turning a sows ear into a silk purse, Dick Vandervert says.


The renovation work is scheduled to be completed next March. Total project cost is about $1.5 million, he says.


The structure is being developed speculatively by Vandervert Developments LLC, and Vandervert says he expects to attract a single user for the building.


Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the contractor on the renovation project, and Russell C. Page Architects PS, of Spokane, designed the improvements.


Steve McIntosh and Carl Guenzel, both of Kiemle & Hagood Co., handled the building transaction.


United Furniture Warehouse, a Coquitlam, British Columbia-based furniture store chain, closed its two Spokane-area stores last year. The other store was located at 4630 E. Sprague.