North 40 Outfitters, the Great Falls, Mont.-based chain of farm-and-ranch stores, is considering constructing a new store on the western edge of Spokane, less than a mile from vacant land the company bought more than four years ago in Airway Heights.

Drew Steinberger, a North 40 spokesman, confirmed the company is eyeing a potential store site on 16 acres of vacant land at the northeast corner of U.S. 2 and Deer Heights Road, although he says a decision isn’t final yet.

“We’re working on a project, but it would be premature to say we have anything concrete,” Steinberger says, adding, “We hope to finalize it as soon as possible.”

Coeur d’Alene-based Young Construction Group of Idaho Inc., however, has submitted a predevelopment application to the city of Spokane that envisions a $6.2 million, 87,000-square-foot “farm, ranch, hardware, hunting, and fishing retail building.”

Predevelopment is an optional phase of a project in which a developer can initiate the city’s planning process.

H2A Architects, also of Coeur d’Alene, is designing the project.

A site plan accompanying the predevelopment application shows the store would include a 10,000-square-foot outdoor garden center on its east side. A 19,000-square-foot area abutting the west side of the store would be reserved for future expansion.

The site plan shows the store parking lot would have 534 spaces.

The store also would have two separate outdoor stock areas, the larger of which would be an acre in size.

The site plan also shows pads for three smaller retail buildings within the development.

The development site is adjacent to Spokane’s west border, which the city shares with the city of Airway Heights.

In late 2012, when North 40 still operated as Big R Stores, its parent company, CSWW Inc., acquired 30 acres of land south of and adjacent to the Cyrus O’Leary’s Pies Inc. production plant at 1528 S. Hayford Road, in Airway Heights.

At the time, CSWW announced it planned to develop a new Big R store and distribution plant there.

Steinberger declines to discuss how and whether plans for the Airway Heights property have changed.

“There are no updates of the first piece of property,” he says. “The other site is what we’re pursuing right now.”

Steinberger declines to estimate how many employees the west Spokane store would have.

The Journal has previously reported that a North 40 store at 170 E. Kathleen in Coeur d’Alene, which recently was expanded to 110,000 square feet, was expected to have about 60 employees after the store expansion.

Young Construction Group and H2A Architects were the contractor and architect on that 82,000-square-foot expansion.

North 40 operates 10 stores in Washington, Idaho, and Montana.

The company’s Spokane-area outlets include a 55,600-square-foot Mead store at 15228 N. Newport Highway and a 32,100-square-foot Spokane Valley store at 8703 E. Trent.

In addition to farm and ranch supplies, North 40’s western-lifestyle inventory includes sporting goods, automotive products, clothing, tools, pet products, horse tack, lawn and garden supplies, tools, art, and jewelry.