Red Robin International Inc., which operates the Colorado-based Red Robin Gourmet Burgers & Spirits Emporium restaurant chain, and Starbucks Corp., the Seattle-based coffee company, plan to open stores in downtown Spokane, across the street from the $110 million River Park Square redevelopment site.


The two companies have leased about 8,600 square feet and 1,300 square feet of space, respectively, on the first floor of the Paterson Building at the southeast corner of Main Avenue and Post Street. Their planned outlets should be open for business there by next spring, says Tom Barbieri, senior vice president of Spokane-based Cavanaughs Hospitality Corp. and broker of G&B Real Estate Services, Cavanaughs commercial real estate division. Cavanaughs owns the four-story Paterson Building and the adjoining former Crescent department store building, now called Crescent Court.


The Red Robin restaurant will be located next to the intersection, and the Starbucks store will be located just east of the restaurant, next to Harveys Fine Clothing, Barbieri says. The two new retail businesses will be kitty-cornered across the intersection of Main and Post from where a new Nordstrom store is being built as part of the big River Park Square project.


Dave Black, CEO of Spokanes Tomlinson Black Commercial Inc., who represented Starbucks in its lease transaction, says he believes the presence of the two prominent chains, added to whats going on at River Park Square, really is going to bolster downtown.


The Red Robin restaurant would be the second one in Spokane. The first one opened at the Northpointe Plaza shopping center on the Newport Highway in January 1992. Red Robin International has been looking at prospective restaurant sites downtown for more than two years, and also has said it plans to open a restaurant at the Spokane Valley Mall, although that hasnt happened yet. Red Robin restaurants feature gourmet hamburgers, pizzas, and pasta. The chain includes about 130 restaurants.


Starbucks has about six other outlets in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area. Starbucks stores sell coffee beans, coffee drinks, pastries, and coffee-related equipment, accessories, and gifts.


Barbieri and Black handled the Starbucks lease. Barbieri and two other Tomlinson Black commercial real estate agents, Randy Jassman and Bill Matteucci, handled the Red Robin lease.


Other Cavanaughs leases


The Red Robin and Starbucks leases were among six that Cavanaughs announced recently for commercial real estate that it owns. It said the leases would add almost $10 million of revenue to the companys coffers in their initial terms. That figure doesnt include Travelers Property Casualty Corps sublease of about 38,000 square feet of space in the Crescent Court that formerly was occupied by the Washington, D.C.-based Student Loan Marketing Association, also known as Sallie Mae.


In the other transactions, Chicago-based Northern Trust Bank leased about 10,000 square feet of space in the Cavanaughs on Fifth Avenue building in downtown Seattle, and the Buckle casual apparel store and Magic Diamond Casino leased a total of about 5,500 square feet of space in the Kalispell Center Mall, in Kalispell, Mont.


Northern Trust Bank plans to open its first Washington branch in the Cavanaughs hotel building in Seattle.


G&B Real Estate Services manages 590,000 square feet of company-owned commercial real estate, 3.1 million square feet of third-party-owned commercial real estate, and 2,200 third-party-owned apartment and condominium units.


Cavanaughs Hospitality Corp. now owns and operates 19 hotels, with a total of nearly 4,000 guest rooms, in the Western U.S. Those properties include 47 restaurants and lounges and nearly 200,000 square feet of meeting space. The company also provides entertainment services through G&B Select-a-Seat.