Spokane-based Vandervert Construction Inc. recently has been awarded four out-of-town construction projects with a total value of $6.7 million that include an appliance store, two tire centers, and a cellular phone outlet.

Tim Stulc, vice president of Vandervert Construction, says the company is close to signing an about $2.5 million contract to construct at 30,000-square-foot structure in the Tri-Cities for an outlet for Spokane-based Fred's Appliance Inc.

The structure will be built along Columbia Center Boulevard, in southwest Kennewick.

Russell C. Page Architects PS, of Spokane, designed the project, which is expected to be completed in four months.

Half of the structure will be warehouse space, and the other half will include a showroom and a design center, Stulc says. The store will be similar to the 20,000-square-foot store Fred's Appliance Design Center at 13820 E. Indiana, just west of the Spokane Valley Mall, he says.

Fred's Appliance also operates outlets here at 2525 N. Monroe, 3321 N. Division, and 10519 E. Sprague, and in Coeur d'Alene, at 255 W. Appleway.

Separately, Vandervert expects to begin work this month on two tire centers for Bend, Ore.-based Les Schwab Tire Centers. One outlet, valued at $2.2 million, will be built in Hermiston, Ore., and the other, valued at $1.3 million, will be built in College Place, Wash., he says.

The Hermiston project will involve constructing a 15,000-square-foot retail and service center, demolishing a portion of a tire center Les Schwab has there now, and remodeling a 9,000-square-foot warehouse. Stulc says the tire center in Hermiston in northeast Oregon is one of Les Schwab's top-selling outlets.

The Les Schwab center to be constructed in College Place, a central Washington town just west of Walla Walla, will have 9,300 square feet of space with six service bays, Stulc says.

Les Schwab bought the site, which is in Meadowbrook Plaza commercial center, from Vandervert Developments LLC, of Spokane, an affiliate of Vandervert Construction.

LB Engineering Inc., of Bend, Ore., designed both Les Schwab projects, which Vandervert is expected to complete late this year.

Les Schwab operates more than 400 tire centers throughout the West, including more than 20 stores in the Inland Northwest, the company's Web site says.

In Lewiston, Idaho, Vandervert recently started work on a 6,000-square-foot building addition that will house an outlet of Roslyn, Wash.-based Inland Cellular Telephone Co. The $700,000 addition will be attached to a 3,000-square-foot building with two retail bays that's part of the Nez Perce Plaza shopping center, which is being developed by another Vandervert concern southwest of downtown Lewiston, Stulc says. The Inland Cellular store is scheduled to open by November.

Russell C. Page Architects designed the project.