The city of Spokane is readying for possible sale more than 24 acres of land on the North Side that its water and solid-waste departments currently occupy and that has attracted considerable interest from prospective buyers.


Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the giant Arkansas-based retail chain, is rumored to be among the parties interested in the property, which is located mostly on the south side of North Foothills Drive between Hamilton and Perry streets. A triangular, 2-acre portion of the city-owned land, used mostly for parking, lies north of North Foothills, just east of a street that curves up the hill there and connects Hamilton to Nevada Street.


Dave Mandyke, acting director for Spokanes Public Works and Utilities Department, says, A conservative estimate of the propertys sales value is in excess of $5 million.


Though within a commercial and light-industrial corridor, the land is surrounded mostly by dense residential development, which might make it attractive to retail and other service-oriented businesses.


To enhance the propertys worth for possible future sale, the city is buying a 2,000-square-foot office building at the northern tip of the parcel.


Mandyke says the $375,000 purchase will make the overall property more marketable if the city decides to sell the property in the future, yet suggests such a future sale is still two years away.


Weve had a lot of inquiries to sell that property from a lot of significant purchasers, but we cant sell the land until we can financially find a way to get the water and solid-waste departments to another site, he says. He declines to name the parties interested in the property or to say whether Wal-Mart is among them.


The citys water and solid-waste departments occupy about nine buildings there, Mandyke says. Those buildings total about 68,000 square feet of floor space between them and are congregated mostly near the southeastern corner of Hamilton and Foothills.


The city is using about 19.5 acres of the land it owns there, and owns another 3 acres of adjoining land that includes seven single-family houses the city rents out, plus two vacant lots. Those properties front on either Perry Street or Marietta Avenue. In addition, it has the 2-acre piece just north of North Foothills where the unpaved parking lot is located.


Mandyke says the eventual goal of Spokanes public works and utilities department is to consolidate all of its seven divisions field operations at its 34-acre complex at 901 N. Nelson. Tentative long-range plans to develop that site are to construct 11 more buildings there at an estimated cost of $98 million, he says. Currently, part of the citys street maintenance division and its parks operations are based there.


Because of an ongoing need to maintain vehicles at one site for all of its departments, Spokanes fleet-services operations at 1433 N. Normandie will be given priority to make the move to the Nelson Street site ahead of the water and solid-waste departments, says Mandyke. The city owns a 5-acre parcel on Normandie that it will sell after fleet services and the radio department, which is also based there, move to the site on Nelson, he says.


Mandyke says a significant source of drinking water comes from a well located on the property just south of North Foothills, and any future sale of that property could be slowed because the city definitely needs to keep access to that well.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.