Seattle-based Coffman Engineers Inc. is relocating its downtown Spokane office to the Old City Hall building, at 221 N. Wall, after nearly 20 years three blocks away in the Peyton Building.

“We found out that the building is going to be converted, and we started looking at properties around the area that suited our needs,” says Karl Kolb, senior vice president and managing principal at Coffman, referring to the building owners’ plans to convert the 133-year-old Peyton Building, at 10 N. Post, into a 96-unit residential complex.

Old City Hall met the criteria that Coffman was looking for in a new office space, Kolb says.

“We surveyed our staff and sorted out the priorities for our people and what mattered to them in terms of location, safety, parking, access, and proximity to clients,” he says.

Improvements to Coffman’s new office space are expected to be completed in November, Kolb says. The multidiscipline engineering firm’s new space will take up the entire fifth floor of the building and about half of the sixth floor, for a total of about 24,000 square feet of usable space, Kolb says.

Coffman currently occupies about 21,000 square feet of space in the Peyton Building.

The lease agreement for the Old City Hall space was signed in January, and design work began immediately, Kolb says. He declines to disclose the cost of the tenant improvement project.

Coffman has about 120 employees at its downtown Spokane office.

“It’s going to be a great space,” Kolb says. “We’re excited to be reinvested in downtown Spokane.”

Spokane-based Yost Gallagher Construction LLC was the contractor for the initial portion of the tenant improvement project, and Finley Construction Inc., also of Spokane, is handling final construction, Kolb says. Spokane-based Fusion Architecture LLC is the architect for the project, and Coffman is handling all engineering services.

Michael Sharapata, senior managing director of the Spokane office of Chicago-based real estate brokerage JLL, represented Coffman in negotiating the lease.