Phil and Heather Lanzone, who own Northstar Sea Foods Inc., a nearly eight-year-old Airway Heights distribution company, say they plan to open a fresh seafood market on the South Hill next week.

The market, called Regal Street Seafood, will occupy a leased 1,200-square-foot space at 2812 E. 30th, near 30th Avenue and Regal Street, and will sell all types of fresh and frozen seafood to walk-in customers, the Lanzones say. It also will have a small amount of seating for people who want to eat fish and chips there, they say.

"I think it's a good extension of our (wholesale) business," Phil Lanzone says.

He and his wife say they regularly have fielded questions from wholesale customers about when they planned to open a retail outlet, and those queries convinced them that such a store would fill a niche here.

The South Hill store will sell standard seafood items such as lobsters, oysters, clams, mussels, halibut, and salmon, as well as more exotic stuff, such as swordfish and mahimahi, shipped in daily, the Lanzones say.

"We will have fish as fresh as they have in Seattle," Phil Lanzone says.

Also, the store will accept special orders and will sell seafood in bulk, such as in 10-pound boxes, at discounted rates, he says. It probably will employ three or four people, mostly family members, he adds.

The Lanzones' wholesale business, Northstar Sea Foods, which the couple founded in August 2003, occupies a 9,000-square-foot building they own at 2524 S. Hayden Road, in the Airways Industrial Park, and has nine full-time employees, Lanzone says. Its operation includes a cutting room that enables it to process seafood there.

The company stocks probably 50 fresh and 300 frozen seafood items, as well as beef, pork, and poultry, and distributes to high-end restaurants, hotels, casinos, and other retail outlets through Eastern Washington and North Idaho, Lanzone says.