Bellevue, Wash.-based wholesale beverage distributor Odom Corp. plans to build a $20 million, 200,000-square-foot regional warehouse facility on the West Plains.

Jerry Dexter, Spokane-based senior vice president for supply-chain management at Odom, says the company plans to break ground in early September on the new facility, which is planned for 43 acres of land across from its current warehouse, at 4122 S. Grove. The company hopes to complete and move into the new facility in April 2014, he says.

The new building is expected to include about 12,000 square feet of office and meeting space, with the balance of the space being used for warehousing.

The Design Group, headquartered in the Boston area, is handling the design and acting as the general contractor on the project, Dexter says.

Odom leases its current 100,000-square-foot quarters and will vacate that building after moving into the new facility.

The new building will be roughly twice the size of Odom's current quarters and is being built as part of a conversion of the Spokane operation to a regional distribution center, Dexter says.

He says the warehouse had distributed soft drinks, other nonalcoholic beverages, beer, and wine to its customers in the Spokane area, but is transitioning to become the hub for central and Eastern Washington.

"By going to a regional distribution center, there are 18 to 20 new positions created," Dexter says.

He describes the transition to a regional distribution center as a gradual process and says many of the company's new positions have been filled already.

Once the new building is finished, Odom might move some of its backroom operations, such as accounting and information technology, to the West Plains facility from western Washington, Dexter says, but the company hasn't made a firm decision on what to transfer to Spokane or set a timeline for such moves yet.

Odom employs 392 people in the region that the West Plains distibution center will serve. Of those, 153 employees work directly out of the warehouse here.

The others work out of Odom's sales offices and dock facilities in the Washington cities of Pullman, Walla Walla, Moses Lakes, Wenatchee, and Omak. Dexter says Cle Elum, Wash., is farthest north city the regional hub serves.

Companywide, Odom employs about 1,900 people. In addition to Washington state, the company has facilities in Alaska and Idaho.

Founded in Alaska in 1934, Odom carries a number of lines of soft drinks, beers, and wines, including Coca-Cola products and MillerCoors lines among others, and supplies them to restaurants, bars, supermarkets, and other retailers.