Spokane-based Wells & Co., two California companies, and a Denver concern all have submitted proposals for the possible redevelopment of all or parts of a 3.5-acre chunk of land in the Riverpoint Campus east of downtown.


Washington State University sought the proposals in late March, hoping to attract a private company to redevelop the property for market-based mixed uses that would be compatible with the multi-school college campus. The property, which is located south of Spokane Falls Boulevard and east of Pine Street, includes the former Jensen-Byrd warehouse building, as well as other nearby buildings and vacant land. The deadline for proposals was April 17, and WSU officials expect to select one of the four proposals as early as this week.


Although few details about the proposals had been released as of last week, they generally include a mix of commercial, retail, and apartment uses. WSU had required that the Jensen-Byrd building be preserved and that no residential condominiums be developed. For the purpose of the proposals, the property was divided into four parcels, one, parcel A, that fronts on Spokane Falls Boulevard and includes two smaller buildings, and three parcels, B, C, and D, situated in a row to the south and which include the main Jensen-Byrd building in the middle and two attached buildings in the former warehouse complex on either side.


The university is pleased with the qualities of proposals submitted, says Ryan Ruffcorn, a project manager here with WSU.


They all have good qualities about them, Ruffcorn says.


The four companies to submit proposals were:


Wells & Co., which would redevelop the main Jensen-Byrd building (parcel C) and parcel D to its east, with a mix of apartments, commercial uses, and a parking garage.


GVD Commercial Properties, an Orange, Calif., company that has an office here, which would redevelop parcels A and B for entertainment, retail, and artistic uses.


Amidi Group, of Redwood, Calif., which proposes using all four parcels. A representative of that company couldnt be reached for comment about its plans for the property.


NexCore Group LP, of Denver, which also would use all four parcels. NexCore declines to disclose details about its proposal.


Noticeably absent from the list was an expected proposal from a joint venture between Robert B. Goebel General Contractor Inc. and NAC/Architecture, says Ryan Ruffcorn, a project manager here with WSU. That joint venture, called Riverpoint Plaza LLC, had been chosen by WSU to develop the property after a similar request for proposals back in 2005, but the parties eventually failed to reach a formal agreement on the proposed redevelopment.


Terry Goebel, vice president of R.B. Goebel, says the company had intended to turn in a proposal in response to the current request, but, after serious study and penciling, (the Jensen-Byrd building) wasnt even close to feasible.


As with the other parcels, Goebel says he hadnt seen enough interest from prospective tenants to make plans for any of the properties work.


WSU ruled out the possibility of razing the Jensen-Byrd building despite a consultants earlier finding that it wouldnt be financially feasible to preserve the building. That consultant, SERA Architect Inc., of Portland, Ore., had determined in 2006 that redeveloping the building into any combination of condominium, apartment, retail, and office space would result in a minimum loss of $3.5 million.


WSUs Ruffcorn says the university doesnt want to give up on the building.


Theres some value in the existing building, and the university wanted to provide an opportunity for developers to make it financially viable, he says.


Ron Wells, owner of Wells & Co., believes the Jensen-Byrd building could have new life.


Wells & Co. proposes that the six-story, 179,000-square-foot building, which was built in 1909, be converted into apartment units on the second through sixth floors and half of the first floor. The basement and half of the first floor would be used for such commercial uses as entertainment, office, retail, and food services, Wells says.


It would have a number of uses complementary to the university, he says.


Just east of the Jensen-Byrd property (parcel C), Wells & Co. initially would convert a large, one-story warehouse building on parcel D into a parking facility and would eventually develop an additional structure there that would house a parking garage and apartment units.


The companys proposal calls for a 70-year lease of parcels C and D. Wells & Co. would pay WSU $12,000 for a one-year option while it lines up financing for the project. Assuming the project begins generating income in the second year, Wells & Co. would pay $128,000 a year for four years to lease parcel C and another $38,400 a year for four years for parcel D, bringing the five-year total to $677,600.


After that, the leases would be renegotiated.


Wells says the proposal includes the stipulation that any lease payments it makes to WSU would need to come from surplus cash after it pays any mortgage and operating expenses, so conceivably, some lease payments could be forfeited by WSU.


Wells says that when the development would occur would be negotiated, but the company would hope to begin redeveloping the Jensen-Byrd building, convert the warehouse building on parcel D into parking, and begin generating income from the project in 15 to 18 months.


Wells says his proposal for the Jensen-Byrd building anticipates that the structure will be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.


The plan is to do a certified historic rehabilitation that would qualify for tax credits, Wells says.


Those tax credits would be equal to about 20 percent of the rehabilitation costs, he says.


The feasibility study conducted in 2006 for WSU by SERA Architects estimated that renovations to convert the former warehouse to apartments would cost about $15 million, Wells says. While Wells & Co. hasnt completed its own estimate of construction costs, We reconfigured the (consultants) plan a little bit to trim out some costs, he says.


Wells & Co. has been involved in 36 rehabilitation projects in 30 years, he says.


Eye toward commercial


GVD Commercial Properties proposal includes just parcels A and B. Parcel A is located at the southeast corner of Spokane Falls and Pine, and parcel B sits just to the south, at the northeast corner of Pine and Main Street.


Currently, there are three buildings on those parcels, and Gerald Vance Jerry Dicker, GVDs president, says the companys proposal anticipates possible demolition of those buildings and construction of at least 30,000 square feet of new building space there.


He envisions mixed uses for those building that would include entertainment, retail, and artistic uses.


Our proposals dont include anything residential, he adds.


If GVDs proposal is selected, development could begin within six months to a year, Dicker says.


The companys proposal calls for total annual lease fees for the two parcels of $69,600, plus option payments totaling $20,000, for a total payment to WSU for the first five years of $368,000.


Dicker says GVD also is open to rehabilitating the Jensen-Byrd building and the structure on parcel D, but didnt submit proposals for those parcels.


We think the Jensen-Byrd building should be preserved, he says. We think its feasible.


GVD develops and renovates retail centers. A related company here, GVD/North River Group, currently is in the planning stages for retail projects in Post Falls, Coeur dAlene, and Hayden.


NexCore proposes a 75-year lease for all four parcels, with a $1, one-year option for each parcel and a $1 annual lease payment for each parcel for three years. Additionally, the company offers to pay a $128,000 annual lease fee for the Jensen-Byrd parcel in the fourth and fifth years, and $131,200 total for the other three parcels in both the fourth and fifth years, which would bring its total payments to $518,416.


Amidi Groups proposal includes 75-year leases for all four parcels. It proposes paying $128,000 a year for the first five years to lease the Jensen-Byrd parcel, and a total of $131,100, a year for the other three parcels, also for five years, bringing the total to about $1.3 million plus negotiated one-year option payments.


Meanwhile, little else has been made public so far about the proposals submitted by NexCore and Amidi Group.


Angela Barbosa, spokeswoman for NexCore, declines to comment on that companys proposal.


NexCore manages 1.3 million square feet of health-care, commercial, and mixed-use facilities in its portfolio, which is valued at $279 million, its Web site says. The companys recent work here includes development of a five-story, 65,800-square-foot medical office building at Holy Family Hospital.


Representatives of Amidi Group couldnt be reached for comment.


In the earlier round of proposals, WSU had included a larger, about 5-acre grouping that included a parcel directly south of parcel D, but Ruffcorn says that 1.5-acre parcel was left out of the current call for proposals because there was little interest from developers in that property.


The parcels included in the current group are designated for future campus buildings in the current master plan for the campus. The request for proposals, however, says that such use wont be needed for many years, and, in the meantime, private development that is compatible with the universitys campus and operations is the highest and best use of the land.


The university encourages development that promotes health, research, student and academic-related uses, Ruffcorn says.


Such uses might include office, retail, lodging, and multifamily rentals, he says.


The Jensen-Byrd building originally was built for the Marshall-Wells Hardware Co., of Duluth, Minn. Jensen-Byrd Co., a Spokane hardware distributor now doing business as Jensen Distribution Services, bought the building in 1958.


Cougar Property Holdings, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Washington State University Foundation, bought the building and other properties in 2000 and 2001.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at mikem@spokanejournal.com.