The white-hot condominium market has prompted another property conversion, this time on the North Side, where Gib Brumback plans to convert a 46-unit apartment complex on the Five Mile bluff into condominiums.


The project is the latest in a new niche market hereapartment-to-condominium conversionsthat is heating up as the popularity of condominium projects spreads like wildfire.


Four conversion projects with a total of about 270 living units are in various stages of development. Brumbacks project involves retrofitting the Highland Heights Apartments complex, at 1823 W. Northridge Court, into condominiums. Other such projects include the 136-unit Condominiums at the Ridge project at 178 S. Coeur dAlene in Brownes Addition, and the 34-unit The Rockwood apartment building, at the northwest corner of Cowley Street and Rockwood Boulevard, on Spokanes lower South Hill. Also, a group of investors recently announced a hotel-to-condo retrofit at the Ridpath Hotels Executive Court building downtown.


In the conversion projects that are far enough along to market units, developers report strong sales so far.


We have between 15 and 20 unit reservations, and we arent even to market yet, Brumback says.


Brumback has begun making exterior upgrades to the six-building Highland Heights complex. He hopes to complete the first sales of condo units there in late March and to begin interior renovations shortly thereafter. Depending on the renovation options a buyer selects, each unit will take between six and 10 weeks to revamp, he says.


The complex, built in 1974, includes 30 two-bedroom units with views to the south and west, six one-bedroom units with views, and nine townhouse units and one three-bedroom unit next to the complexs pool.


Condo prices range from $85,000 to just over $140,000, Brumback says. He expects to attract a mix of empty nesters and first-time home buyers.


Of the other conversion projects, the Condominiums at the Ridge conversion is the furthest along. Richard Wilson, managing partner in Ridge Condominiums LLC, a New York-based company thats doing the conversion, says the company has sold 55 of the 136 units there so far, and all but 21 renters have vacated their units. The complex, which includes nine buildings on the western edge of Brownes Addition overlooking the Spokane River, is marketing its units for between $159,000 and $248,000. Those prices include the cost of renovation, Wilson says. The vast majority of the units have two bedrooms and about 1,200 square feet of floor space.


So far, Wilson says, roughly 60 percent of the condo buyers are empty nesters, many of whom have or are looking to buy a second home in a warm-climate area. Most of the rest of the buyers are younger professionals, he says.


On the lower South Hill, Rockwood Conversion Inc. has bought The Rockwood apartment building and has sales agreements on a few units there. Darin Davidson, who formed the company, says it hopes to complete its first sales there this month.


The company plans to spend $15,000 to $20,000 renovating each unit in the building, which is nine years old and was constructed with the idea that some day it would be converted into condominiums.


The units there are being marketed for between $160,000 and $390,000. Most of them have views either westward toward Spokanes medical district or northward toward the east end of downtown.


Downtown, Executive Court LLC, a group led by real estate executives Dave Black and Grant Person, has bought the Ridpath Hotel Executive Court building, at the southwest corner of First Avenue and Stevens Street, and plans to turn 77 hotel rooms there into 50 condo units.


The sale closed late last month, and design work is just getting under way. Black says the company hopes to keep the cost under $200,000 for the individual units, each of which will have between 500 and 600 square feet of floor space.


Developers say conversion projects are appealing to people interested in living in condos, but wanting or needing a price point somewhere south of the lofty sums that luxury units are commanding in the citys core.


This provides a housing option that hasnt been available before in this town, asserts Wilson, of the Ridge project.


Davidson, of The Rockwood project, says that in Spokane, apartment-to-condo conversions are a different kind of affordability play than occurs in most big cities.


Here, he says, the converted condos are an option for people who want to live in condominiums, but arent in the market for the luxury units that dominate the downtown market, many of which start at over $400,000.


With converted condos being marketed for prices ranging from $85,000 to $390,000, many units are in line with single-family home prices. In 2005, the median home sales price reported through the Spokane MLS was $150,000.


In big cities, Davidson says, a condo conversion provides a home somebody can buy when they cant touch a single-family detached home.


Contact Linn Parish at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at linnp@spokanejournal.com.