Developers are taking the next step to bring a new Home Depot store to the former Shopko site on Spokane's South Hill, as Lars Andersen & Associates Inc. has filed for environmental approval for the project with Washington state Department of Ecology.

A spokesperson for Home Depot declines to comment on plans for the new store. 

Construction could begin by summer and a new store could be open by summer 2025, according to new information on the state environmental checklist, which follows a pre-development application submitted to the city of Spokane in August for the $20 million project.

As planned, the former 101,500-square-foot Shopko building will be demolished to make way for a 134,000-square-foot retail store for Home Depot, along with parking-lot upgrades and expanded stormwater retention areas.

The home building supply store is planned on the 13-acre site, at 4515 S. Regal, near the southeast corner of 44th Avenue and Regal Street. The site will be accessed from both Regal and 44th , where about 900 daily vehicle trips will be generated once the store opens, according to the environmental application.

Representatives of  Lars Andersen, a Fresno, California-based civil engineering company, couldn't be reached immediately for comment. 

The building will be a single-story, 107,900-square-foot retail store with a 26,300-square-foot garden center, a loading dock, and over 450 parking stalls, environmental information shows. Vehicle and tool rental centers also are planned at the store.

Landscaping improvements include two stormwater basins, and the removal of about 70 trees to be replaced with new vegetation and ground cover, environmental information shows. A 10-foot-high wall along the southern boundary of the property will help reduce noise for some residential and commercial properties south of the building.

Phoenix-based real estate investment company SHS Building LLC purchased the land for $10.5 million nine years ago, Washington state tax records show. Shopko has been vacant since 2019.

As previously reported in the Journal, the home improvement retailer scrapped similar plans in 2008 for a new store and garden center just southeast of the Shopko building due to objections by some neighborhood residents and building restrictions that limited the footprint of a big-box store to 100,000 square feet at that site.

Project updates:

*On the West Plains, Blue Beacon Inc. has proposed a new $3 million truck wash facility—the first in Washington state for the Salina, Kansas-based company, according to building permit application information on file with Spokane County.

Construction could begin this spring on the 10,000-square-foot truck wash facility featuring two wash bays on a 3-acre site located on undeveloped land zoned for commercial use. 

The project site, which doesn't yet have an assigned address, is located south of an Amazon warehouse and sorting center at 6125 S. Hayford Road and lies near the northeast corner of Hayford Road and Geiger Boulevard.

Spokane-based Womer & Associates Inc. designed the project. No contractor is listed on permit information.

Blue Beacon operates over 110 locations in the U.S. Its truck wash facilities operate 24/7, according to the company's website.

*Spokane Indian Housing Authority has purchased the Autumn Leaf Furnished Apartments, a 24-unit complex at 12911 W. 13th, in Airway Heights, for $3.6 million.

Seattle-based commercial real estate company Kidder Mathews, which represented the seller, Autumn Leaf Furnished Apartments LLC, announced the sale of the complex in a February press release.

The Autumn Leaf apartments were constructed in 2017. Units have about 1,000 square feet of space.

Fawn Brigman, resident service director at Spokane Indian Housing Authority, says the apartments will no longer operate as a short-term, extended-stay rental complex. Instead, the property will become housing for veterans, enrolled student tribal members, and Spokane Tribe Casino employees.

Property management company Spokane Corporate Housing LLC is no longer affiliated with the apartments, Brigman says. 

Spokane Indian Housing Authority helps eligible applicants find rental housing and provides down payment assistance for new homeowners, according to its website. 

*Spokane Eye Clinic PS plans to expand its North Spokane medical office with a 2,300-square-foot, $700,000 clinic addition at 9651 N. Nevada, preliminary planning information on file with the city of Spokane shows.

Design plans for the project call for the construction of eight consultation rooms, four office and administration areas, and a storage room on the north side of the 10,700-square-foot building.

Yost Gallagher Construction LLC, of Spokane, filed a pre-development application for the project earlier this month on behalf of the eye clinic. 

Yoguntwo LLC, a Spokane real estate company, owns the property, according to Washington state tax information.