A San Francisco company has filed an application with the city of Spokane for design review for a seven-story, 30-unit condominium building on the north side of the Spokane River just east of the Flour Mill.


The proposed 127-foot-high building would include approximately 56,600 square feet of living space, including roughly 8,500 square feet of space for four penthouse suites on the seventh floor, according to city records.


Alex Waterbury, a spokesman for the San Francisco company, Presidio Development Partners LLC, declines to elaborate on the project beyond the public filing, adding that we hope to fly below the radar until weve reached the final design-review process.


City records show that the project would be built on slightly more than one-third of an acre of land owned by GVL Investors LLC, of Tiburon, Calif., which also owns the Flour Mill. The condo building to be built there would be called the Upper Falls East Condominiums, but shouldnt be confused with the Upper Falls Condominiums, which are being constructed on the west side of the Flour Mill by a group headed by Spokane businessman Don Barbieri.


The urban design staff of the citys economic development department received Presidio Developments application for a design review permit May 23 and has told the citys Design Review Committee in a report that the project meets the objectives of the Spokane Riverfront Development Program. Still, the report goes on to suggest that the applicant submit north and south elevation studies for the project and address city codes and guidelines related to parking and landscaping.


The urban design staff report also says that the southwest edge of the site appears to be in a Federal Emergency Management Agency flood zone, an issue the report says will be addressed when the applicant applies for a Shoreline Conditional Use Permit for the project.


Design review is just one of many hurdles such a project must scale before receiving city approval to proceed, says Eric Coles, a project planner for the city.


You can start the process other than with design review, but (the applicants) probably figured it would fall under design review eventually, Coles says.


Waterbury declines at this time to discuss either the estimated prices of the units or a timetable for project development.


According to city records, 16 of the living units would face to the south and include outdoor balconies facing the Spokane River. The other 14 units would face to the east and to the north, and include outdoor balconies with views of either the downtown area or the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.


The lower two levels of the condominium structure each would include three daylight condos facing the river and would be below ground level. The ground-level units would include two condos that also would face south toward the river. City records say levels four through six each would include six condominium units.


The four penthouse suites would range in size from a 1,550-square-foot unit that would face north to a 2,600-square-foot unit that would face south overlooking the river. The living units on the first six levels would vary in size greatly, from 700 square feet to 1,900 square feet, the plans say.


The northern two-thirds of the property would be occupied by both ground level and below ground level parking that would provide a total of 50 parking spaces, say the plans.


The applicants description of the project, the address of which would be 607 W. Mallon, says, no direct access to the Spokane River is available or even feasible from the project site, as it is situated on a basalt bluff above a waterfall bend in the river.


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