City discusses developer plans for a Home Depot on the South Hill

Early plans are filed with the city to allow developers to demolish the old Shopko building on the South Hill and build a new Home Depot store.

It’s the latest interest in the property on South Regal Street since Shopko closed its store in 2019 along with 362 others across the country.

Earlier this month, plans were discussed in a predevelopment meeting with the city to open a Home Depot at the 4515 S. Regal St. location.

The Shopko building has been for sale for years and was once listed by Kidder Mathews, a Seattle-based commercial real estate firm.

“Those large buildings are hard to sell,” said Monica Wallace, regional president of brokerage for Kidder Mathews. “Buyers have to like the location, size and economic circumstances, which is certainly a smaller pool of tenants.”

“I suppose that’s why they’re going to take it down,” said Steven MacDonald, the city’s director of community and economic development.

After demolishing the building, site plans show the construction of a building larger than 134,000 square feet: about 28,000 square feet to be a garden center and more than 106,000 square feet of main retail space.

McDonald said the project could boost the local economy.

“The building has been vacant for years, its deteriorating and isn’t generating any sales tax,” he said.

“This store could have a $2 million impact from the city’s portion of sales tax alone,” he said, basing the number on sales from the other Spokane Home Depot near the intersection of North Division Street and North Newport Highway.

A new Home Depot store could employ 145 to 175 people, according to the project description submitted to the city.

“There could be a lot of indirect impacts, too. I mean, just the addition of over a 100 full-time workers who are getting paid above the living wage and getting benefits is a big deal,” he said.

City Councilman Ryan Oelrich is more wary of the $20 million project.

“I’ve heard from constituents who have seen people trying to break in or climb on top of the roof; it also gets vandalized, too, so activating the property would be good for that,” Oelrich said. “But local hardware stores are in the area, too. What will happen to them?”

The new building would include a lumber canopy and a rental center. Customers could lease small power tools, power- or gas-driven equipment, small flatbed trucks and a cargo van, according to the project description.

McDonald said the products and services Home Depot offers are scarce on the South Hill

“Now people don’t have to go all the way to the north location or to Spokane Valley,” he said. “I live about 10 minutes away, and I am looking forward to it.”

In two weeks, McDonald, along with other city officials, will meet with the project’s design team to further discuss plans.