A franchisee of Carpinteria, Calif.-based Carl’s Jr., the national burger chain, wants to construct a restaurant at the southwest corner of Northwest Boulevard and Maple Street, preliminary planning documents recently submitted to the city of Spokane show.

The proposed $600,000, 2,400-square-foot restaurant would be constructed on a 14,000-square-foot parcel of land at 1617 W. Northwest Blvd. 

The site is on the east side of a former gas station in a vacant retail center formerly anchored by an Albertsons supermarket, a predevelopment application shows.

The restaurant, which would be the second burger eatery at the Maple Street-Northwest Boulevard intersection, would be across Maple Street from a Jack in the Box restaurant that opened late last year.

Coffman Engineers Inc., of Spokane, recently submitted the predevelopment application to begin the city’s planning process for the project on behalf of the franchisee, Boise-based CJ Star LLC.

A CJ Star representative couldn’t be reached for comment.

The preliminary site plan, which was designed by The Office of Architecture & Design PLLC, of Boise, shows a drive-thru lane would curve along the east and north sides of the restaurant, close to the streets. The restaurant parking lot would include 10 parking spaces on the south side of the restaurant.

The Carl’s Jr. restaurant would be the third endeavor to be planned at the former Albertsons complex. As reported earlier in the Journal, Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest plans to convert 20,000 square feet in the former Albertsons supermarket building, which is roughly half of the structure, into retail and production facilities for its thrift store operations.

Planet Fitness, the Newington, N.H.-based chain of membership workout facilities, which operates a gym in Spokane Valley, plans to occupy the other half of the former Albertsons building.

Boise-based Albertsons LLC closed its Northwest Boulevard store in 2011, citing declining profitability at that location, which is across Northwest Boulevard from a Safeway supermarket.

CJ Star also is constructing a $756,000, 2,400-square-foot Carl’s Jr. restaurant at 1230 N. Division, the former longtime site of the National Furniture store, which was razed earlier this year.

Vandervert Construction Inc., is the contractor on that project, which is scheduled to be completed before year-end.

The website for Carl’s Jr. lists nine Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area restaurants.

The chain’s parent company, CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., which also owns the St. Louis-based Hardee’s restaurant chain, announced in March that it plans to consolidate the headquarters of both chains in Nashville early next year.