The Dirt: Two next-door stores open in Airway Heights

Construction crews were putting the finishing touches this past week on a new Builders Supply & Home Center, which has already opened for business in Airway Heights.

The 64,506-square-foot business, at 11350 W. 12th Ave., is adjacent to the new Yoke’s Fresh Market, 11450 W. 12th Ave., which also opened this past week. That store is replacing the older Yoke’s at 12825 W. Sunset Highway.

As for the Builders Supply store, David Wilde, the lead architect and project manager, said the store has already had a soft opening and is operating at normal business hours.

“We still have crews working to finish everything up,” Wolfe said last week. “We are still putting finishing touches on the tile and trim and everything, but we are open for business.”

Both stores were built on an 8-acre site that the Kalispel Tribe of Indians leased to Aman Sood, of Colville.

Sood, who could not immediately be reached last week, also owns the Colville Builders Shopping Center in Colville and Kettle Falls True Value in Kettle Falls.

In 2021, Sood told The Spokesman-Review that he was excited to expand to the Spokane area.

“I always wanted to start a business in Airway Heights … it’s a growing area, and Airway Heights needs a good hardware store for building materials and supplies,” Sood said. “I saw an opportunity and wanted to make the best out of it.”

The project’s estimated cost was more than $6 million, Sood said at the time.

The Builders Supply and Home Center offers a wide range of products at the hardware store, including paint, cabinets, insulation, roofing, flooring, windows, electrical and plumbing supplies.

The store features a drive-thru lumberyard as well as an expanded fencing and ranch selection with metal and pole building kits, as well as lawn, garden and pet supplies.

“It caters to both homeowners and professionals for all of their building material needs,” Sood said.

The store is expected to employ 65 to 70 people, Sood said.

The new Yoke’s building is about 50,146 square feet. It is separated from the nearby Chevron by a large parking lot.

Millworx hotel work begins

Construction has begun on one of the signature projects as part of the massive Millworx development on 32 acres of a former logging operation in Post Falls that has been compared to that city’s version of Spokane’s Kendall Yards.

Wilde, a principal with Wolfe Architectural Group of Spokane, said construction has begun on the 151-room hotel, which will include restaurants.

“We’ve got the hotel going up out of the ground right now,” Wilde said last week. “It’s got underground parking, a restaurant and a bar. It’s going to be a pretty full-service facility.”

Barring any delays, the hotel target completion date is late next year, he said.

It’s part of a 650 living-unit project that is being built around the idea of a walkable downtown core that will give it a similar feel to Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone development.

Millworx is centered around Fourth Avenue at its intersection with North Idaho Road south of Interstate 90.

North Idaho Road had ended at the former Idaho Veneer Co. mill, which was owned by the Malloy family. It closed and the family sold it to A&A Construction & Development, of Spokane, in 2020.

Ryan Ruffcorn, the development manager for A&A Construction, told The Spokesman-Review last year that the overall development will take years to complete and cost $150 million to $200 million.

“It’s really a huge investment,” Ruffcorn said. “One of the things we are trying to do with the project is honor the history of Post Falls and the history of the mill.”