Yoke’s South Hill site moves ahead

Plans continue to move forward for a retail complex anchored by a new Yoke’s Fresh Market on the South Hill in the Moran Prairie neighborhood.

A meeting tonight will reveal the results of a traffic study completed for the proposed retail and office complex on the southeast corner of 57th Avenue and Palouse Highway. The development would necessitate vacating part of Ben Burr Road, immediately south of its intersection with 57th Avenue.

“We think we’ve met all the requirements for the traffic part of it,” said Denny York, Yoke’s senior vice president and director of store development. “The next piece is getting Ben Burr annexed over to the property and that happens next month.”

Yoke’s and developer Dave Black, CEO of Tomlinson Black Commercial, have an agreement to buy about half of the 18 acres at that intersection, with plans for the supermarket and a retail strip of about 20,000 square feet, Black said. The plans include space for a bank and possibly a restaurant, along with smaller neighborhood retail shops, Black said.

However, he added, the purchase of the land is contingent upon the partners receiving a building permit. Doing that means working out storm water drainage issues and reconfiguring the roads, including 61st Avenue, to provide access, he said. Access to the Yoke’s Fresh Market would be from 57th and Palouse Highway, York said.

“The plans have not changed for two and a half years,” Black said. “It’s taken this long to get the approvals.”

Spokane doctor Hrair Garabedian has an agreement to purchase the remaining land from Don Jacobson and Allen Williamson, former owners of Jacobson Greenhouses, Williamson said. That agreement also is contingent upon the project obtaining the needed approvals, said Joe Nichols, a Windermere Manito/Palouse agent representing Williamson and Jacobson.

Though Spokane County approved a zone change request in August 2004 to allow for commercial development, Yoke’s still needs a conditional use permit, because the store proposed is larger than what is allowed in that zone, said Greg Sweeney, a consultant to Yoke’s and Black.

“That process happens next,” he said.

If all the approvals fall into place, York said Yoke’s hopes to begin construction of the supermarket by next spring. Construction would take about six months, he said.

Cheryl Gwinn, a Moran Prairie resident who has been active in the neighborhood association, said if the developers are responsive to community issues, residents are likely to support the plan.

“If they handle their traffic and they handle their storm water and they don’t affect downstream property owners with storm water runoff and they make it aesthetically pleasing, I don’t think anybody is going to mind,” Gwinn said.