Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is moving forward with plans to remodel and significantly expand its Spokane Valley store into whats called a Wal-Mart Supercenter, which involves adding a full-service supermarket to the stores retail mix.


The big, Bentonville, Ark.-based chain bought about eight acres of land just east of its store in the Spokane Valley Plaza, at 15727 E. Broadway, last year, and plans to start work this month on an 80,000-square-foot expansion there, says Amy Hill, a Reno, Nev.-based Wal-Mart spokeswoman.


Hill declines to disclose the projects cost, but the Spokane County Building Department lists the additions value at about $3.8 million.


The addition will give the store a total of 213,000 square feet of floor space, which will make it larger than the 184,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Super-center the company opened in Post Falls earlier this year.


Work on the pro-ject, which also will include remodeling of some current space in the store, likely will be completed next spring, Hill says. The store will remain open throughout the construction project, she adds.


Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor on the project, and an Arkansas architectural firm designed it.


As completion of the project nears, Wal-Mart expects to begin adding about 200 additional employees at the expanded store, which will give it a total of about 450 workers there, Hill says.


The Spokane Valley Wal-Mart opened in June 1997 and was the chains first in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area. Since then, Wal-Mart has opened two stores on Spokanes North Side, as well as the Post Falls store. It has announced plans for a store in Coeur dAlene, but those plans currently are on hold.