Mission Property LLC, of Spokane, is negotiating with a national restaurant chain that hopes to build an eatery at the high-profile corner of Spokane Falls Boulevard and Browne Street, where the Union Gospel Mission building and another dilapidated structure now stand.


Tom Tilford, managing member of Mission Property, declines to disclose the restaurant chains name, but he says the project would involve demolishing the older buildings and constructing a stand-alone eatery with outdoor seating along Spokane Falls Boulevard and parking along Main Avenue to the south.


Another knowledgeable source here says the restaurant would be a Chilis Bar & Grill. A Chilis franchisee, San Ramon, Calif-based Sydran Services Inc., announced plans to open an outlet at NorthTown Mall on Spokanes North Side this fall and said it was looking for two more sites here.


The buildings on the southwest corner of Spokane Falls and Browne are largely vacant, with some space used by a Christian biker group, called the Soul Patrol.


Although negotiations with the restaurant chain are moving forward now, the project earlier appeared as though it might be derailed by proposed zoning regulations and design guidelines that would support a downtown master plan accepted in April by the Spokane City Council. The council is expected to vote on those new guidelines in January.


Tilford says a Downtown Spokane Partnership executive told him that the proposed restaurant project might be too suburban in nature for the desired site, which is in an area intended for high-density professional or residential uses.


Since those initial discussions, he has met with city officials and Downtown Spokane Partnership representatives about the project, and they have concurred that the development would be allowed under the proposed land-use changes. However, Tilford says, I got a wake-up call to what this plan might mean. I dont think the vast majority of landowners or occupants on the periphery of downtown are aware of it.


The downtown plan, authored by Berkeley, Calif.-based Moore Iacofano Goltsman Inc., lays out a plan of action for the downtown area.


Michael Edwards, president of Downtown Spokane Partnership, a nonprofit organization that supports the master plan and has organized public meetings to discuss it, says his group organized four workshops and notified affected landowners and building occupants of those meetings. He says the group took extra steps to make sure everybody who wanted to could attend.


Tilford also says the plan does a good job of identifying appropriate land uses in the downtown core and the area just north of the Spokane River, but he contends its off the mark in its assessments of other downtown areas, he says.


Another group of developers has proposed a project just one block east of Mission Propertys land, at the corner of Spokane Falls Boulevard and Bernard Street where the old Sullys Restaurant is located, and had a different experience.


Roger Fruci, whose family is involved in that project, details of which havent been firmed up, says the city notified them of the proposed zoning changes, which had the potential to stymie their development plans if passed. Fruci says the group turned in its plans and wont be affected by any zoning changes now.


The city specifically did not want us to be blindsided by this, Fruci says.


He says the difference could be that the city was aware of the development groups proposal, and it may not have known about Mission Propertys plans.


Edwards says there are details to iron out before the zoning regulations and design guidelines are adopted by the City Council, but, he says, Its a good plan with strong community input. It will create an urban area thats unique in the city.