A state agency will issue nearly $9 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds next month to finance the construction of a new headquarters building here for the Inland Northwest Blood Center.


Excavation for the new center already is under way on a two-acre site at 210 W. Cataldo, says Judi Young, the nonprofit organizations CEO.


The Washington Health Care Facilities Authority, which will issue the bonds, conducts similar bond sales on behalf of nonprofit health-care facilities across the state. Proceeds of the sales then are loaned to organizations for use in construction and remodeling projects, to refinance debt, or to buy equipment.


Of the $8.99 million thats expected to be raised in the Aug. 16 bond sale, $8.77 million will be used to construct the 55,000-square-foot facility, Young says. The remainder will pay for soft costs, such as architects and financing fees, she says.


Ramey Construction Inc., of Spokane, could begin pouring the structures foundation as early as mid-August, and the building should be finished by the fall of 2002, Young says. The blood center already has applied for a building permit from the city of Spokane.


The blood center has put its current headquarters building, at 507 S. Washington, up for sale, she says. The 22,000-square-foot building is listed for $1.1 million with Grant Person, of Tomlinson Black Commercial Inc., she says.


Young has said that the blood center, which supplies blood to 27 hospitals, clinics, and transfusion centers in the Inland Northwest, has outgrown the facility it has occupied for nearly 50 years.