National Furniture Store Inc., the Spokane furniture retailer known for its “No Baloney” tagline, plans to move out of its aging building on Division Street, which will be demolished and replaced with a national burger restaurant chain outlet, says Mark Barnes, the store’s second-generation owner.

Barnes says National Furniture’s retail operations will move to its warehouse location at 213 E. Ermina from its longtime location at the high-traffic southeast corner of Division and Sharp Avenue.

The warehouse is two blocks north of Indiana Avenue, and east of Ruby Street, less than a mile north of National Furniture’s Division Street location.

Barnes says National Furniture plans to vacate and demolish the retail building this spring, and the tenant will construct a new structure there.

“They want me out as soon as possible,” he says.

Meantime, Erstad Architects PA, of Boise, has submitted a predevelopment application to the city of Spokane for a Carl’s Jr. restaurant at the site.

The 2,800-square-foot restaurant building would be constructed on the west third of the lot with a drive-thru lane near Division Street and a 36-stall parking and east of the building, a preliminary sight plan shows. The restaurant would have vehicle access via Sharp and Division.

The application lists Boise-based Carl’s Jr. franchisee CJ Star LLC as the project owner and estimates the construction cost at $600,000.

The tenant likely will begin constructing the Carl’s Jr. structure in mid- to late June and is expected to complete the project this fall, Barnes says.

Barnes says his decision to move National Furniture was pushed by the deterioration of the retail building, which he says he has been reluctant to restore, because the business hasn’t recovered fully from the Great Recession.

“It needed tens of thousands of dollars in maintenance work on the building,” he says. “The business wasn’t getting the capital that was needed. It’s been tough in the furniture business, because furniture lasts so long. In a recession, people are happy to hold onto their furniture for another year.”

The Division Street-facing half of the retail building was constructed in 1916 and was occupied by a Coca-Cola Bottling Co. plant in the 1930s and 1940s, Barnes says. The east portion of the building was constructed in the 1950s for a car dealership, he says.

Barnes says he bought the Ermina warehouse building 15 years ago with the idea of creating a showroom and moving the retail operations there eventually.

“It’s made so it could be turned into retail,” he says. “I don’t have to go out of business, but I’ll turn the (Division and Sharp) corner over to somebody who’s paying more than I am.”

In addition to him, National Furniture has 10 employees, Barnes says. One employee plans to retire, and the rest will move to the Ermina Avenue location, he says.

One of the challenges with the move will be to squeeze the sales and warehouse operations under one roof, Barnes says.

Under the current two-building configuration, the Division Street store has 17,000 square feet of sales floor space, and the Ermina Avenue warehouse has 11,500 square feet of storage space.

Spokane commercial real estate broker Marshall Clark, of Clark Pacific Real Estate Co., handled the Carl’s Jr. transaction.

“About four years ago, Marshall Clark asked me what it would take to get off the corner,” Barnes says. “I said he would just have to call on the right day. A few months ago, I was having one of those days, and he brought me an offer for a long-term ground lease.”

Barnes declines to disclose the terms of the lease, but adds the site isn’t for sale. “I’m never going to let loose of the corner,” he says.

Barnes took over National Furniture in about 1987. His father, Arnold Barnes, and business partner Leo St. Marie founded the business in 1960.

The website for Carpinteria, Calif.-based Carl’s Jr. Restaurants LLC lists nine Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area restaurants.