Portland-based food distributor and warehouse market Cash&Carry Smart Foodservice is erecting its first North Idaho store in Coeur d’Alene.

Cash&Carry obtained a building permit to erect the $1.8 million building in mid-December and hopes to open the Coeur d’Alene store in the spring, says company spokesman Ryan Weedon.

Curt Faus Corp., of Tualatin, Ore., is the contractor on the project, and the Boise office of Santa Ana, Calif.-based Tait & Associates Inc. designed it.

The project site is a vacant parcel south of Appleway Avenue, behind a Wendy’s hamburger restaurant and an Atilano’s Mexican Food outlet.

The new store will have 20,000 square feet of floor space, which is typical for Cash&Carry outlets, Weedon says.

“This is more of an existing market, because we’ve got two Spokane stores,” Weedon says, adding that the Coeur d’Alene store likely will have 10 to 12 employees.

The Spokane-area outlets are located at 7630 N. Division, on the North Side, and at 211 S. McKinnon, in Spokane Valley. Both Spokane-area stores are located near Costco membership warehouse stores.

In all, Cash&Carry operates 60 wholesale food stores in six Western states, including 18 stores in Washington and three stores in southern Idaho.

Weedon says Cash&Carry serves restaurant and deli owners, chefs, caterers, coffee-shop proprietors, and event planners, although stores are open to the general public with no membership fees.

“Our target market is mostly small business operators,” he says. “Everything we sell is in bulk.”