Thabel Inc., which owns the Grocery Boys store in East Spokane, plans to build an addition onto the grocery store building, and is eyeing construction of a car wash nearby.

Owner Jasbir Thabel estimates the total cost of the store addition and the envisioned car wash would be between $630,000 and $750,000.

Haines Architectural Services, of Spokane, designed the planned 2,300-square-foot addition to the store, which is located at 3430 N. Crestline. The store sells meat, groceries, and convenience store items, and also operates a Texaco brand gas station.

Thabel says he hopes to start work on the addition to the east side of the store by February. Construction should take about six weeks, he says. As of earlier this month, he hadn't yet selected a contractor.

"This store will be 100 years old this July," he says. "We want to have more room for everything."

The grocery addition would give the store just over 11,000 square feet of space. Thabel says he had planned the latest expansion last year before Initiative 1183 passed, allowing a store with more than 10,000 square feet of floor space to sell hard liquor and spirits. He says, however, that if the current design submitted to the city of Spokane is approved, he expects to sell liquor in the future.

The company previously added 2,000 square feet of floor space to the store in 2007.

Thabel says he plans to seek city approval by this summer for a one-bay automatic car wash and expanded parking on property he owns just south of the Grocery Boys store, where an old grocery building was demolished last year.

Bemiss Neighborhood Council Chairwoman Ann Wick says neighbors have questioned whether a car wash would meet zoning requirements and have expressed concerns over the added traffic it would bring to that corner, which is a few blocks from Bemiss Elementary School.

"We'd like to see a more pedestrian-friendly business there," she says.