For a long time, the mental map of Newport Highway ended at Wandermere. You drove north past the Division "Y," past Northpointe, past Hawthorne, and the gravity kept pulling you toward the Wandermere Mall and the old North 40 store on the far end. That was the anchor. Everything south of Hawthorne was a run of pad sites you passed through on the way somewhere else.
Between fall 2025 and fall 2026, that map has quietly flipped. The corridor's center of gravity is sliding roughly a mile south, into the stretch between the Y and Hawthorne Road, while the old anchor at the north end has moved even farther out into Mead. If you live off Hawthorne, Country Homes, Waikiki, or anywhere in the 99218 zip, your after-work errand loop is not the same loop it was a year ago, and it's worth understanding why before you keep driving past the new stops out of habit.
What actually changed between the Y and Hawthorne
The four biggest moves are all clustered inside a half-mile of asphalt. Here is the current status as of mid-2026, with the addresses so you can place them on your own drive:
| Business | Address | What it replaced | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raising Cane's | 9252 N. Newport Hwy | New build near Chick-fil-A | Open since Sept. 9, 2025 |
| Bagel Authority (2nd location) | 9335 N. Newport Hwy | Former Starbucks near Rosauers | Under construction, drive-thru |
| Planet Fitness of North Spokane | 9534 N. Newport Hwy | Existing retail bay | Licensed Jan. 2026 |
| Nordstrom Rack | 9612 N. Newport Hwy | Former Big Lots at Northpointe Plaza | Fall 2026, 31,000 sf |
Raising Cane's opened its first Spokane location on Sept. 9, 2025 at 9252 N. Newport Highway, near Spokane's only Chick-fil-A at 9304 N. Newport Highway, which put three high-volume drive-thrus inside a single block. The Bagel Authority is following the same logic: the locally owned shop that has operated downtown at 903 W. Riverside since 2023 is adding a second location in the former Starbucks at 9335 N. Newport Hwy, just north of the Y by Rosauer's grocery store, and the new spot will have a drive-thru window.
The Nordstrom Rack piece is the one to actually pay attention to, because it changes the anchor mix at Northpointe Plaza for the first time in years. A $4 million project will revive a 30,000-square-foot space at Northpointe Plaza alongside Dick's Sporting Goods, Target and TJ Maxx, in the storefront that previously housed Big Lots at 9612 N. Newport Hwy. Renovations include minor facade improvements, new HVAC systems and a concrete pad in the rear along with a trash compactor, with the total buildout estimated at $4 million. Northpointe already carries 350,000 square feet of retail space, with anchor tenants including Target, Dick's Sporting Goods, TJ Maxx, Safeway, and Total Wine & More, so dropping a national off-price fashion anchor into the old Big Lots box is a real category addition, not a swap.
Add in Planet Fitness of North Spokane at 9534 N. Newport Highway, which took a business license in January 2026, and you have four separate reasons to slow down between Francis and Hawthorne instead of driving through.
The move that pulled the old anchor a mile north
The mirror image of the southward cluster is what happened to the far end of the corridor. North 40 Outfitters closed its longtime store and moved into a 113,000-square-foot flagship at 14411 N. Newport Highway, south of the former location at 15288 N. Newport Highway. That new Mead store is even bigger than the 90,000-square-foot store the company opened on the West Plains in 2021.
For a Colbert or Mead resident, the flagship is a straightforward upgrade. For someone living in the older North Spokane neighborhoods off Country Homes Boulevard or Five Mile, it means the "north end" errand that used to bookend a Wandermere trip is now genuinely out of the way. Combined with the new southern cluster, the practical effect is that the useful part of Newport Highway for a Hawthorne-area resident has shortened. You don't need to drive as far north as you used to, and when you do, you're driving farther.
The new errand loop, in the order it actually makes sense
If you live in the neighborhoods feeding into Hawthorne Road or Country Homes Boulevard, the sequence that used to require two trips now fits into one. Roughly:
- Coffee or a bagel run at the new Bagel Authority drive-thru at 9335 N. Newport, on the way out of the neighborhood.
- Groceries at the Rosauers next door, or at Safeway inside Northpointe.
- A single stop inside Northpointe Plaza that now covers Target, TJ Maxx, Total Wine, Dick's, and, once fall 2026 hits, Nordstrom Rack for anything you used to drive to the Valley Mall Rack for.
- Gym at the new Planet Fitness at 9534 N. Newport if that fits your day.
- A dinner pickup at Raising Cane's or Chick-fil-A in the 9200 block on the way home.
That is a loop that lives entirely between the Y and Hawthorne Road. Two years ago the same list would have sent you across three separate parking lots stretched from Francis to Hastings.
Why it matters that a national off-price anchor picked this corridor
Restaurants sign leases on gut and traffic counts. National off-price fashion anchors do not. Nordstrom Rack is the largest source of new customers to Nordstrom, which means the site selection team has a low tolerance for weak locations. Their arrival at Northpointe is a read on the corridor's staying power, not a favor to it.
The specific choice also tells you something about how Spokane's retail geography is being drawn. There are a dozen Nordstrom Rack locations in Washington including one at the Spokane Valley Mall at 14018 E. Indiana Ave., and the company is comfortable operating two Racks inside the same metro. Putting the second one at the Y rather than on the South Hill or the West Plains is a bet on the North Spokane rooftop count and on drive-time from Deer Park, Colbert, and Mead. If you own here, that bet is being placed on your neighborhood's behalf, and you did not have to write the check.
What this means if you own a home nearby
For everyday life, the tangible change is that more of what you need is inside a five-minute drive. For a homeowner, the second-order effect is worth naming carefully. Amenity density is one of the more durable things a suburban corridor can add. New drive-thrus come and go. A 31,000-square-foot national anchor moving into a shopping center backed by Target, Dick's, and Safeway is a longer-horizon signal, and it tends to keep the surrounding blocks legible to future buyers who are house-hunting on Google Maps from Seattle or the Tri-Cities before they ever set foot here.
None of that says anything about your specific home's value on a given Tuesday. It does say the corridor you use is being underwritten by companies with better data than any of us have. If you were already thinking about whether to list this year or next, the fact that the neighborhood's biggest retail change lands in fall 2026 is at least worth putting on the same calendar you use for pricing and prep decisions.
If you want a straightforward read on what your particular block, cul-de-sac, or acreage parcel looks like against the backdrop of this shifting corridor, Kristin Vanos grew up in these neighborhoods and works them full time. Start with a free home valuation, or send over your address and we'll walk you through what the changes on Newport actually mean for your house, not the market average.
