Panera Bread, a Kirkwood, Mo.-based bakery chain, is considering building a restaurant in North Spokane, which would be the company’s second such outlet in Eastern Washington.

Panera Bread filed an application with the city of Spokane to explore the possibility of building a new restaurant at 6500 N. Division, roughly a block north of Francis Avenue. 

It is initially slated to be a 5,100-square-foot freestanding building with a drive-through, says Russ Page, of Russell C. Page Architects PS, the project architect.

“We’re designing the shell and Panera is designing the interior. We just completed a predevelopment meeting, so we’re waiting for revised site plans from Panera Bread,” Page says. A general contractor has yet to be named for the project.

An early estimate of the construction cost is listed in permit documents at $650,000 on the pre-development application. 

Attempts to reach Panera Bread representatives were unsuccessful.

Panera’s other restaurant here will occupy a 5,100-square-foot freestanding building that’s being constructed at 15716 E. Indiana, east of Spokane Valley Mall near the Interstate 90-Sullivan Road interchange.

Steve Stoehr, a project superintendent with Spokane-based Yost, Mooney & Pugh Contractors Inc., which is the general contractor on that project, says construction on the Valley restaurant will be finished by the end of this month. Stoehr says he isn’t sure when that restaurant will officially open. 

On its website, Panera Bread says it specializes in freshly baked breads, pastries and sweets, bagels and spreads, breakfast and lunch, soups and macaroni and cheese, and salads.

The restaurant chain included 1,880 bakery cafes in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Ontario, Canada, as of the end of last year, its website says. 

The Valley restaurant represents its first foray east of the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. 

It operates at least 10 restaurants along the Interstate 5 corridor, from Tulalip to Renton, Wash., on the west side of the state, according to a map on the company’s website.