The first phase of a large, long-planned residential development in West Spokane, now called Canyon Bluffs, is moving forward after a number of revisions and years of controversy.


In the project, Canyon Construction NW Inc., a Spokane company headed by builder Robert Townsend, plans to break ground in coming weeks on a 192-unit apartment complex and a 59-lot home subdivision, says Jack Krystal, chief operating officer of San Rafael, Calif.-based Feature Realty Inc., owner and developer of the site.


The development will be located 300 to 500 yards west of U.S. 195, about a mile south of the U.S. 195-Interstate 90 interchange, and will be accessible from Thorpe Road on the south and 16th Avenue on the north. Feature Realty proposed a development in the early 1990s there called Mission Springs.


The city of Spokane late last month issued building permits for the planned first phase of the apartment complex and has given final plat approval to the 59-lot housing area. The city also has approved a preliminary plat for the entire 82-acre site that would allow for development of an additional 517 multifamily living units and another 25 single-family homes on the site.


The first phase of the apartment complex is planned at the south end of the property, near Thorpe, and will cost about $12.6 million to build, Krystal says. Plans in the first phase call for eight, three-level apartment buildings, each with 24 living units. The units will range in size from 600-square-foot, one-bedroom units to 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom units.


The apartment complex also will include a two-story, 10,000-square-foot clubhouse with an exercise room, racquetball court, sauna, computer room, and common room for tenants to use for group events, Krystal says. In addition, the building will house a managers office and a child-care facility, he says. An outdoor swimming pool will be built near the clubhouse.


Krystal says he expects that the clubhouse and first apartment building will be completed in September or October, and completion of the other apartment buildings will be staggered over the rest of the fall and the winter.


Spokane architect Jim Haines designed the apartment complex.


Meanwhile, infrastructure improvements are slated to start early next month on the subdivision, which will be located at the north end of the property. Krystal says Lighthouse Group, a Spokane home builder that will construct the houses at Canyon Bluffs, is expected to start work on the first two model homes there this spring.


The houses in the development will be marketed at prices ranging from $110,000 to $150,000, Krystal says.


Earlier proposals for Mission Springs and the first generation of Canyon Bluffs involved a total of 790 multifamily-living units, with no single-family housing. Krystal says the city allowed the project to move forward only after the developer reduced the number of multifamily units and added single-family housing to the mix.


The developer and the city have been at odds over aspects of the development plans regarding utilities and traffic mitigation, and Feature Realty has sued the city over some of those issues. Krystal declines to comment on the pending litigation.