The first phase of Sundance Plaza, a proposed 300,000-square-foot retail center along Indian Trail Road on Spokanes North Side, is scheduled to start coming out of the ground in March.


That $8 million phase, which will involve construction of 112,500 square feet of retail space at the southwest corner of Indian Trail Road and Barnes Road, is expected to be completed in September, says Spokane developer Dick Vandervert, managing partner of Sundance Plaza LLC, which is building the retail center.


Tenants for the project havent been signed yet, but Vandervert says he is negotiating a lease with a supermarket chain thats expected to take 57,000 square feet of floor space. Hes also working with three potential users of retail pads that would have stores along Indian Trail Road. Those prospective tenants include a pharmacy, a bank, and a restaurant, which would occupy buildings with 17,000, 5,000, and 3,500 square feet of floor space, respectively. Vandervert declines to disclose their names until leases are signed.


About 30,000 square feet of additional retail space will be constructed next to the supermarket as part of the first stage of development.


Vandervert says the second and third phases of Sundance Plaza will include about 200,000 square feet of retail space south of the first stage and are expected to be built over the next five years.


Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor for the project, and Bernardo-Wills Architects PC, of Spokane, designed it.


In another Vandervert-led retail project, Granite Investments LLC, of Spokane, expects to break ground in May on an $8.5 million retail center at the northeast corner of U.S. 2 and Hayford Road. That project could be completed in October, Vandervert says. He says tenants havent been signed for that project yet, either.