Spokane architect and developer Glen Cloninger says he and partner Dave Mark plan to construct four more buildings in the Grapetree Village mixed-use site on Spokanes South Hill within the next several years.


The 10-acre, mostly still undeveloped Grapetree property is located on the north side of 29th Avenue in the east 2000 block. Currently located there are an Applebees Neighborhood Grill & Bar that was constructed in 1996 and a two-story, 26,000-square-foot retail building that opened this week.


Cloninger says he expects that one of the four additional buildings will be a retail structure similar in size to the one that just opened, while another building will be an about 40,000-square-foot multifamily housing structure. He says its unknown at this time if that structure will include condominiums, apartments, or units only available to senior citizens. Also envisioned there are a 10,000-square-foot to 15,000-square-foot fitness center and a building at the northwest corner of 29th and Lee Street that he hopes will house a bank branch, he says.


Glen A. Cloninger & Associates, of Spokane, will design the buildings, for which cost estimates werent available yet, Cloninger says.


Mired in hearings, court proceedings, and controversy for about a decade, Grapetree Partnership, which owns the development, received Washington Supreme Court approval to proceed with work at the site earlier this year.


The partnership also plans to develop 65 single-family cottages for people 55 and older on 17 acres of adjoining property to the northeast of the area where the four buildings will go, Cloninger says.


Meanwhile, a medical clinic, karate school, and coffee shop opened for business this week in the just-completed Grapetree Village retail building, and a pizza eatery is slated to open there next month, he says.


He adds that only about 2,500 square feet of floor space in the building still is available for lease.


The anchor tenant in that building is an urgent-care clinic operated by Alpharetta, Ga.-based U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group, which is leasing 4,600 square feet of floor space there, Cloninger says. Also, Family Karate Center Inc., of Spokane, has moved into about 4,000 square feet of space, and a Spokane-based Cabin Coffee outlet is occupying 1,200 square feet of space. The pizza eatery that will open there next month will be called Villagio Pizza Wine Martinis and will occupy 1,500 square feet of space, Cloninger says.


He says the building was designed with a lot of common space for tenants and their patrons.


U.S. HealthWorks moved its urgent-care clinic there from a smaller space at 2830 S. Grand. It also has offices here at 9222 N. Newport Highway and 15425 E. Mission. In addition, the company has 10 other locations in Washington and about 115 locations nationwide, says Debbie Owens, Spokane area operations manager for U.S. HealthWorks.


Twelve people, including two doctors, currently are employed at the Grapetree Village clinic, and that number will rise as patient volume increases, Owens says.


Family Karate Center has been located for 17 years in a smaller space at 1407 E. 57th. Owner Gene Villa says the school currently has about 150 active students, two full-time instructors, and three part-time instructors.


Cabin Coffee owner David Tawney says that companys Grapetree Village shop, which includes a drive-through window and an outside patio, is its fifth outlet in the Spokane area. He says he plans to employ eight people at the new location.


Steve Seddon and his wife, Cannies, of Spokane, have formed S & C Fine Foods Inc. to own and operate Villagio Pizza, says Steve Seddon. He says hes been in the restaurant business since 1980, but this is his first pizza venture. The businesss leased space at Grapetree includes a heated outdoor patio. Seddon says the business expects to employ seven people.


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