Homestead Birkenstock plans to move its longtime store in the Flour Mill by the end of March to a larger space at the northwest corner of Main Avenue and Wall Street downtown, says Jim King, one of the owners of the small, Spokane-based retail chain.


For its new home, the company has leased a roughly 3,800-square-foot, two-level store that until recently was occupied by a B. Dalton Bookseller store, which closed at the end of last year, King says. Jack Saad, of Spokane, owns the building.


King says the street level of the new store will house a selection of shoes and will have a coffee bar that sells products from Tullys Coffee Corp., a Seattle-based roaster. On the skywalk level, the store will offer an expanded selection of jewelry and natural-fiber clothes and will begin selling small home dcor items.


Gutman Construction, of Spokane, is remodeling the space for Homestead Birkenstock. King declines to disclose a cost estimate for the remodeling project.


King and his wife, Debbie, own Homestead Birkenstock with another couple, George and Elsie Stewart. The company owns stores at NorthTown Mall and the Spokane Valley Mall in addition to the one in the Flour Mill, which was its first and opened in 1974.


King says he and his partners decided to move that store to take advantage of additional opportunities they see for retailers downtown now that the citys core is being rejuvenated.


Homestead Birkenstocks store at the Flour Mill occupies about 1,000 square feet of space and employs eight people, King says. He expects to hire several additional workers after the move. Counting the other stores, the company employs a total of about 30 people here.


Virgil Emery, of Inland Commercial Properties LLC, and Tom Carstarphen, of Heritage Properties, handled the lease of the new downtown store.