Panera Bread, a Kirkwood, Mo.-based bakery chain, is preparing to open a restaurant in Spokane Valley that will be its first in Eastern Washington. 

Attempts to reach a Panera Bread representative were unsuccessful. 

However, Steve Stoehr, a project superintendent with Spokane-based Yost, Mooney & Pugh Contractors Inc., which is the general contractor on the project, says the new store will occupy a 5,100-square-foot freestanding building at 15716 E. Indiana. The construction site is just northeast of the Interstate 90-Sullivan Road interchange and a few blocks east of Spokane Valley Mall.

Construction started at the end of March, and the restaurant is scheduled to open in mid- or late June.

“Fortunately we haven’t had any surprises, and right now we’re on schedule,” Stoehr says. 

On its web site, 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 company says on its website that it has 1,880 bakery-cafes in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Ontario, Canada. 

This is Panera Bread’s first foray east of the Cascades Mountains in Washington state. The company currently operates 10 Panera Bread restaurants along the Interstate 5 corridor, from Tulalip to Renton, Wash, according to a map on the company’s website.