Spokane-based grocery chain Rosauers Supermarkets Inc. plans to construct a new $3.1 million, 32,000-square-foot grocery store in the Suncrest area in Stevens County, northwest of Spokane.

Rosauers President Jeff Philipps says the new store will be constructed on 5.5 acres of bare land at 5912 state Route 291 near Lakeside High School. 

Construction crews are expected to break ground this week, Philipps says, and the project should take about seven months to complete. 

The store will include Rosauers’ first fuel station, he says. The company decided to foray into fuel because it’s constructing this store from the ground up instead of remodeling an existing space, Philipps says, which gives it more ability to customize. 

“The opportunity was just right for us there,” he says. 

The building will consist of almost 32,000 square feet of main floor space and two mezzanine levels, one with 2,300 square feet of office space, and the other with 1,500 square feet of equipment storage space, Philipps says. The building will sit on a 5.5-acre lot.

The Suncrest store is smaller than typical supermarkets, Philipps says, but that’s because the community it’s aiming to serve has only about 8,000 residents.  

“The store will be able to address the needs of the community,” he says. 

The supermarket will have all the traditional offerings, such as organic products, a meat counter, and a deli, Philipps says, but won’t have a pharmacy. It also will have a large seating area, which Philipps says will serve as a community center. The store is expected to employ about 39 people, Philipps says. 

The contractor for the project is Yost, Mooney & Pugh, of Spokane, and the architect is Nystrom+Olson, also of Spokane, Philipps says. The developer on the project is Dave Black, of Black Suncrest LLC and NAI Black. 

Rosauers decided to build a store in Suncrest after years of requests from the residents there, Philipps says. 

“I think over time we’ve had a number of residents from the Suncrest area write us requesting we build a location in Suncrest,” he says. 

Philipps says Rosauers originally was interested in building a store at this location five or six years ago, but another company had plans to build on the site, he says. That project fell through and the parcel became available again, and Rosauers was able to negotiate with the owners and move forward with its planned store, he says. 

Rosauers purchased the land for the store from owners Jeb and Marilyn Bowell. As part of the deal, Philipps says, Rosauers will take over operations of the Bowell’s 8,000-square-foot grocery store, the Suncrest Supermart & Deli, at 5978 state Route 291 in Nine Mile Falls. Once the new Rosauers supermarket is built, that store will close, Philipps says. 

Rosauers operates eight stores in Spokane, including the Super 1 Foods at 29th Avenue and Grand on the South Hill and Huckleberry’s Natural Market on S. Monroe. It has two Rosauers stores on the North Side, in the Five Mile Plaza shopping center and near the Division “Y”; one in Spokane Valley at University and Sprague Avenue; two on the South Hill at 2610 E. 29th and 907 W. 14th; and one in Browne’s Addition. 

The last new Rosauers to open, Philipps says, was a replacement store for the University and Sprague Avenue outlet in 1999.