Seattle developer Nitze-Stagen & Co. has postponed a decision on whether to co-develop the 76-acre Summit site west of downtown with Spokane-based Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., which owns the property. The Seattle company is talking, though, as if it fully expects to be a partner in the big project.


Kevin Daniels, a Gonzaga University graduate and president of Nitze-Stagen, says the company has extended a due-diligence evaluation period, which originally had been scheduled to expire months ago, to Nov. 1 to allow time for some business plans to be completed.


Despite the postponement, he says, I think its looking great. Were very excited about what we have learned. Market studies have given us more confidence in the growth of Spokane than we had even imagined.


Daniels and Bill Arsenault, Metropolitans corporate architect, say Nitze-Stagen has prepared a development plan that includes some conceptual layouts for the site and what might go there, based on market studies. They declined for now to release any details of the development plan, but Daniels says he still expectsas he had mentioned in an earlier interviewthat the initial focus at the site would be on residential uses.


If Nitze-Stagen decides to move forward with Metropolitan on the development of the site, construction could begin as early as next spring, Daniels says.


Metropolitan announced in April that it had entered into a 45-day due-diligence period with Nitze-Stagen, an investment and development company that specializes in taking on complex urban projects. The agreement allowed for extension of the due-diligence period if needed. Since then, Nitze-Stagen has been gathering and evaluating information on the Summit projects market potential, estimated construction costs, community backing, and other data related to its feasibility.


Daniels said back in May that the company already was impressed by the seemingly high degree of support for the Summit project in the community.


The Summit site, by far the largest piece of undeveloped land near downtown Spokane, extends along the north bank of the Spokane River west of Monroe Street. Metropolitan began accumulating it about 20 years ago and disclosed plans in 1990 for a possible large mixed-use development there that it described as a self-contained urban village. Those plans later came to include residential units of various types, office space, commercial space, and a hotel.


The city of Spokane approved a master plan, environmental impact statement, and planned-unit development for the site in 1994. Metropolitan has struggled since then, though, to attract a major office or commercial tenant to kick off the project. Rather than funding any speculative building construction, it put the Spokane site on the back burner for a number of years.


Daniels has said he envisions the site showcasing a pedestrian-friendly style of development called new urbanism, that can be seen in areas such as Portlands revitalized Pearl District and San Diegos Gaslamp Quarter, and that harkens back to mixed-use neighborhoods of the 1950s.


Nitze-Stagen has become prominent in the Seattle area for its efforts in the large Starbucks Center redevelopment project and restoration of the Union Station terminal building there, among other projects. The company also has offices in New York.