A Spokane developer plans to convert the former Burgans Fine Furniture complex north of downtown into a five-story suite style hotel and a retail and events center in a project that could cost $10 million to $20 million.

GVD Northwest LLC recently filed preliminary plans for the project, which is located near downtown Spokane at 1120 N. Division, with the city of Spokane, and hopes to begin construction in 2010, with completion of the hotel sometime in 2011, says Gerald Vance "Jerry" Dicker, the company's president.

Though that timeline could be pushed out depending on the economy and other factors, Dicker says, "We're committed to building this project or something equal to it."

"We started the development process before the crisis, which allows us to keep going forward," Dicker says. "It takes a long time to give birth to a project."

GVD Northwest's parent company is GVD Commercial Properties, which is owned by Dicker. GVD Northwest, which is the managing partner of Burgans Block LLC, and a partnership formed with Bruce McEachran, whose family had an ownership interest in the Burgans furniture store for 90 years, own the property.

Another affiliated company, GVD Hospitality Management Services Inc., would operate the five-story hotel, but a brand for the hotel hasn't been selected yet, Dicker says. GVD formed the hospitality-services company less than two years ago to provide hotel consulting services, Dicker says.

The property originally included five buildings on a block bounded by Division and Ruby streets and Boone and Desmet avenues. The buildings had a combined more than 140,000 square feet of floor space. After demolishing two warehouse buildings on the south side of the block and a single-family house on the north side of the block and adding two stories to the Burgans Fine Furniture building, the resulting project would have a total of about 92,000 square feet of space in two buildings on the west side of the block.

Currently, crews are dismantling two warehouses, located on the southeast portion of the block, almost "deconstructing" them by hand, says Ryan Goodell, GVD's vice president. Bricks and wood from those warehouses will be used in the dcor of the new facilities. GVD will seek to preserve the historical fascia on the side of the warehouse facing Division, but Dicker says "the side facing Ruby, we'll have to be inventive with."

The main entrances to the remaining buildings are envisioned to face Ruby, and parking would be developed on the east side of the block, facing Division.

The hotel would have between 90 and 100 suite-style rooms in an about 70,000-square-foot building, and might include a decorative tower above the main entrance. Dicker says the hotel likely would include a swimming pool, exercise facilities, and a business center, as well as its own dining facility.

The 22,000-square foot warehouse would be structurally upgraded and converted to an events center complex, which could include retail shops and eateries on the main floor, galleries and a public space on the second floor, and an events center on the third floor, with a rooftop garden that also could be used by the events center. The warehouse's basement would house a kitchen to be used for onsite catering for the events center.

Most of the main floor of the hotel would be a lobby, but it could have some retail shops on the north side with entrances from within the hotel and from Boone. Dicker says he's seeking businesses to lease the space that would complement the hotel. He says the project ideally will have a broad appeal, but fit in with the University District and the arts community. The development would have a total of 10,000 to 12,000 square feet of commercial space to be leased, he says.

GVD expects to have a predevelopment meeting with the city of Spokane this month and then will begin to refine the timing of the project, Dicker says.

GVD has been working on preliminary designs for the project with Myhre Group Architects Inc., of Portland, which Dicker says has significant experience in adapting older brick buildings.

"We think it's a project that will do a lot to reinvigorate Division Street architecturally and aesthetically," Dicker says.