Toys R Us Plans To Build Valley Store

Toys R Us plans to become the Spokane Valley Wal-Mart’s first new neighbor.

The toy giant plans to build a $1 million, 30,000-square foot store near Sullivan Road and Broadway Avenue, according to county records. The store will be part of the Spokane Valley Plaza, a Metropolitan Mortgage development.

Toys R Us, to be constructed just west of Wal-Mart, will open in early November said Kent Barber, regional manager for Toys R Us.

“It won’t be FAO Schwartz, but it is going to have our new concept, a racetrack open design,” said Barber. “There will be interactive displays and more things happening in this store than in more of the traditional stores.”

Barber estimates he will hire between 50 and 60 employees in November, and add another 40 or 50 more for the Christmas season.

The Valley Toys R Us store will be the retail chain’s second in Spokane. It will be about 30 percent smaller than the North Side Toys R Us store, Barber said.

Along with Toys R Us, Metropolitan Mortgage’s planned $2.2 million Spokane Valley Plaza will include two separate 10,000-square foot buildings, and a 6,000-square foot restaurant, according to county documents.

Construction crews are currently installing water, sewer, drainage and utility hookups and building a parking lot at the plaza site. But the buildings won’t begin to go up until after the county has seen and approved the final design, said Tom Davis, county code administrator.

“We’ve done a preliminary design of a building for the purpose of marketing the property,” said Don Enemark of Metropolitan Mortgage, which is managing the project.

Toys R Us is the only tenant so far to commit to the Valley Plaza, Enemark said.

, DataTimes