Work has stopped for the time being on the planned Diamond Shopping Center on Spokanes North Side after a big tenant apparently dropped out of the project.


That tenant, Kent, Wash.-based retailer World Lighting & Design Inc., no longer plans to open an outlet in the retail center, says Joe Ward, president of Pinnacle Realty Inc., the real estate company thats marketing the project. Ward says he doesnt have any additional information about World Lightings decision.


The retail center, located on the former Diamond Bowl property on the east side of Division Street, between Wedgewood and Lyons avenues, is partially built. Ward says he doesnt expect work to resume there until tenants are secured. He currently is marketing about 27,000 square feet of floor space for which a buildings shell already has been constructed, but he hasnt signed any tenants for that space.


Spokane developer Harlan Douglass, who is building the shopping center and also is an investor in World Lighting, couldnt be reached for comment. Attempts to reach John Foucrier, World Lightings Kent-based president and chief operating officer, also were unsuccessful.


Plans submitted to the city of Spokane last spring say the shopping center will include a total of 124,000 square feet of floor space when completed. A building permit issued by the city early last year listed the value of the retail project at about $5.5 million.


At that time, Foucrier said World Lighting planned to occupy about 25,000 square feet of floor space in the retail center and that it expected to open in October 2001.