A Boise-based developer who nearly four years ago announced plans to build a six-story, 75,000-square-foot office building in Coeur d'Alene has returned to the city with downscaled plans for a building that would be a fraction of the size originally envisioned.

Paul Pennington, CEO of VIQ Development LLC, says the company has been working with the city and plans to apply, possibly within days, for a building permit to construct a one-story, 6,000-square-foot retail building to be located at the southeast corner of Sherman Avenue and Seventh Street. The project site is at the former location of a Senor Froggy restaurant, just west of the Flamingo Motel and north of the 15-story McEuen Terrace mixed-use building.

The planned retail structure, like the earlier envisioned office building, would be called The Plaza on Sherman, Pennington says.

"We're still working through final issues with the city to make sure the timing aligns with needs and desires of tenants," he says.

Pennington says a Subway sandwich shop has signed as a tenant, and the development company is working with a number of other potential tenants he declines to identify.

"It looks like it will have three or maybe as many as four tenants, depending on uses," he says.

Kilgore Construction Inc., of Colbert, will be the contractor on the project, and Nystrom Olson Architecture, of Spokane, designed it, Pennington says.

"We're hoping to make sure the roof is on and walls are up before the snow flies," he says.

Pennington declines to disclose the budget for the project and says the architect is still working on a cost estimate.

Seventh & Sherman LLC, a VIQ Development affiliate, will own the Plaza on Sherman. Erik Nelson, of Spokane-based commercial real estate brokerage Kiemle & Hagood Co., is the leasing agent for the planned building.

The decision to scale the project back from the original vision "was just due to the timing of the economy," Pennington says, adding, "We feel the economy can support and sustain this project."

The project would help extend the downtown core to the east, he says.

"Seventh and Sherman is an important corner with its proximity to City Hall and the Coeur d'Alene Public Library," he says. "We're excited to extend the core by another block or two."

VIQ Development was founded in 2006 and has developed commercial projects in the Boise area. The Plaza on Sherman would be VIQ's first project in North Idaho.