Atlanta-based international shipping company United Parcel Service Inc. has leased a building at Douglass Legacy Park, on the West Plains, with plans to open a distribution facility there later this year. 

Amanda Catala, regional community relations manager for UPS, says that the planned distribution facility and customer center is expected to open in October at 9210 W. Harlan Lane, south of Spokane International Airport and northeast of the Amazon.com Inc.’s West Plains fulfillment center. 

Catala says the UPS facility will include a customer counter and employ both warehouse workers and delivery drivers, although she declines to disclose the total number of employees anticipated at the site.

UPS has one other customer center in the Spokane area, located at 1016 N. Bradley Road, in Spokane Valley, according to the company’s website. That customer center offers a self-service kiosk, drop-off and pick-up services, limited packaging supplies, and printing of mobile shipping labels, the website shows.

Catala says that she’s excited for the new facility to bring more customer service and improved efficiency to the Spokane area.

UPS will occupy the entire 96,000-square-foot building, says Chris Bell, of Spokane-based commercial real estate company NAI Black, who is the leasing agent for the park. He says that work is underway to prepare the building for UPS.

“They’re currently doing their tenant improvements,” Bell says.

Bell represented Douglass Legacy Park in the lease transaction, and Michael Sharapata, of the Spokane office of Chicago-based JLL, represented UPS.

Permits filed with Spokane County show that UPS is installing a package handling conveyor into the building, and that there will be support space for material handling operations on the main floor. Tenant improvements are valued at $2.3 million, according to permit information.

Walker Construction Inc., of Spokane, is listed as the contractor for interior tenant improvements, and EthosEnergy Field Services LLC, of Santa Fe Springs, California, is listed as the contractor installing the package handling conveyor system, permits show.

Prominent Spokane developer Harlan Douglass owns the 127-acre industrial park, which is expected to have up to 19 buildings totaling about 1.5 million square feet of space once complete. Bell says that the total square footage of leasable space could change, depending on demand in the market.

Construction of three buildings, including the one leased by UPS, is complete, Bell says. The other completed buildings are 75,000 and 80,000 square feet. The Journal reported in 2022 that the estimated construction value of the three buildings was $16 million.

Two other buildings—one that will have 108,000 square feet of floor space and another with about 141,000 square feet—are expected to be completed soon, Bell says.