Community leaders in the small, quiet college town of Cheney say that the city has been humming with development activity in recent years, and theyre seeking ways to encourage that growth for the future.


The West Plains city has been experiencing a growth spurt, with housing developments rising on its north side, big construction projects dotting Eastern Washington Universitys campus, and new businesses opening in and near downtown. The citys full-time population grew by roughly 17 percent, to more than 10,000, between 2000 and 2005.


Theres considerable energy and excitement here, more so than there was even four years ago, says Paul Schmidt, city administrator. We were working hard back then, and now were seeing the results of that work snowball into additional interest.


Charlie Dotson, executive director of a Cheney-based economic-development organization called Pathways to Progress, says community leaders are seeking to promote Cheney as a small town that has some of the amenities of a larger city.


Small towns like ours have an advantage over places like Spokane because we have a different lifestyle thats attractive, asserts Dotson, the city of Spokanes former planning director. I think people are beginning to discover Cheney.


Spokane developer Dick Vandervert, who has been involved in several big commercial projects in Cheney in recent years, says he plans to develop a yet-to-be-named restaurant at the southeast corner of the intersection of state Route 904 and Betz Road. His Vandervert Construction Inc. built a 76-room Holiday Inn Express at the northwest corner of that intersection last summer.


Other projects completed recently by various companies headed by Vandervert include the 132-unit Rock Springs Apartments and the 130,000-square-foot Cheney Plaza shopping center, which is nearly fully occupied.


Vandervert says he decided to develop projects in Cheney several years ago because he saw growth potential there.


We try to pick out strategic locations in the area, and Cheney was one of them, Vandervert says. I think we guessed right. Weve had a good rate of growth out there, and the college is growing by leaps and bounds.


Also, a franchisee of Pita Pit USA Inc., of Coeur dAlene, plans to open a Pita Pit restaurant soon in a former movie theater, at 122 College, about two blocks east of the EWU campus.


Meanwhile, Steve Emtman, a Cheney native and former professional football player, plans to begin developing next spring a roughly 1,300-unit largely residential project, called Terra Vista, in southeast Cheney. (See story Big mixed-use project planned in Cheney.)


Emtman also plans to renovate several buildings he owns downtown, and is seeking tenants for those buildings.


Also, Tomlinson Black West Plains, of Cheney, plans to build a new office building for its own use soon, says Mike Hume, a partner in Spokane-based Tomlinson Black North Inc., which is involved in the operation of TBWP. The 4,700-square-foot office, which will have room for more than 25 agents, will be able to handle growing residential real estate demands in that market better, Hume says.


For its part, the city of Cheney is seeking funds for a roughly $12 million expansion to its waste-water treatment plant. The plant was originally expected not to reach capacity until 2014, but now is projected to do so by 2008.


The city also is trying to develop jointly with Spokane County a community park on a roughly 50-acre site north of Betz Road where it meets Washington Street, Schmidt says. The estimated $6 million project would include a park, aquatics facility, and athletic field.


Our growth has exceeded our prior planning expectations, Schmidt says. Cheney is growing, plain and simple, and I see that continuing.


Since Cheney is a college town, EWUs recent growth has played a part in the development activity that has occurred in the community. EWU said last month its fall-quarter enrollment climbed to more than 10,000 students in its 19th consecutive quarter of growth. Meanwhile, about 2,000 students, or 20 percent of total enrollment, now live on EWUs residential campus.


EWU has spent tens of millions of dollars on construction projects over the past few years. Now, site work is under way for a $26.3 million recreation center there. That project follows a $26 million Computing and Engineering Building that was completed late last year.


In 2002, Spokane developer Rob Brewster Jr. built a $5.5 million residence hall near downtown Cheney, which houses more than 140 students and includes a bookstore and coffeehouse. Brewster has said hes interested in further development in Cheney.


Benji Estrellado, an EWU alum and owner of Cheney Realty Inc., says hes watched as the campus has grown and as more parents of students have bought houses in the area for their children to live in while in school.


Eastern has become more of a campus university, rather than a commuter school, Estrellado says. Residential activity has slowed a bit this year, but is going fairly well, and Im still excited.


Single-family homes under $200,000, which are the homes that parents most often buy for their college-age children and use as rentals after they graduate, are selling briskly, he says. Sales of existing homes valued at more than $200,000 have slowed a bit, while new home construction has been steady, he says. The city issues an average of between 250 and 350 building permits a year valued at between $250,000 and $350,000.


Construction of a fourth phase of the Golden Hills subdivision, located near Cheney High School, is under way, Estrellado says. The rest of the homes in that subdivision have sold out, as have homes in the nearby Avalon Place neighborhood, at the southeast corner of Betz and Sixth Street, he says. The Orchards, at the northwest corner of Betz and state Route 904, is nearly completed and almost fully occupied, he says.


Demand is strong among EWU faculty members and employees of the Cheney School District for higher-priced housing, and Cheney loses a number of potential adult residents to other nearby communities because of its lack of housing in that segment right now, Estrellado says.


Commercial activity


Although Cheney needs a greater variety of housing, the residential development that has taken place there thus far has spurred quite a bit of commercial activity, Estrellado says. Its been fantastic for retail services, he says.


As Estrellado walks along First Street, the main thoroughfare downtown, he mentions businesses that have opened recently or are planned to open soon, such as a new coffee shop and bakery called Cheney Delights. While commercial activity appears to be picking up, quite a few windows still reveal empty office and retail spaces.


Dotson says hes working to fill those spaces.


Pathways, a nonprofit entity funded by the city of Cheney and EWU, worked with the university, the city, the West Plains Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations to conduct a comprehensive market survey of Cheney last year, Dotson says. The survey concluded that the city loses $100 million to whats called retail leakage, meaning Cheney residents spend that much money elsewhere for goods and services each year.


It shows a market for new business development that far exceeded anybodys expectations, Dotson says. If a community doesnt have the right mix of business and retail services, residents have to go elsewhere.


In the summer of 2005, Pathways organized a workshop in which civic and business leaders from the Spokane area met to create development strategies for Cheney. One of those strategies involved recruiting retailers to Cheney, specifically those indicated as top priorities by residents in the market survey, Dotson says. In particularly high demand were entertainment venues, clothing stores, and restaurants, including eateries that are open 24 hours a day and offer wireless Internet access.


Another strategy calls for recruiting light-industrial businesses to industrial properties in southwest Cheney, where a 113,000-square-foot building that formerly housed a Honeywell Electronic Materials plant sits empty, Dotson says. The city has been seeking a tenant for that building, located on a 48-acre parcel that Honeywell owns on the north side of state Route 904 west of Presley Drive, since Honeywell vacated the building about two years ago.


Schmidt says the city is working with a company, which he declines to name, that is considering buying the site. The company would improve 10 acres of land surrounding the building, while the city would use state and federal grants to perform infrastructure improvements on the remaining 38 acres, he says. The company then would sell or lease that land to other industrial users.


The company would bring in high-wage jobs, which is a good thing, Schmidt says. The potential to build out the rest of that area is also really exciting.


Across the street from the Honeywell building to the south lies the largely undeveloped 20-acre Cheney Technology Park. Currently, the only tenant there is North Star Equipment Inc., which makes clay-shaping equipment for potters. The city hopes to recruit businesses that would buy land and build facilities in the park so it can seek funding to do public infrastructure work there.


It could happen if we had someone who stepped up and wanted to locate there, Schmidt says. We need somebody to commit to developing.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.