Riverpoint Campus Apartments LLC, a company owned by Spokane developer Lanzce Douglass, has purchased the former Downtown Midas Muffler site at the southeast corner of Division Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard, says Ryan Layton, a commercial real estate broker involved in the transaction.

Layton, director of investment sales with American Real Estate Associates Inc., says the transaction involves four parcels totaling nearly 1 acre in size at 230 N. Division, which Douglass’ company has acquired from Robert and Louis Sterling, of Spokane, for $2.6 million.

Douglass didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.

Layton says the buyer hasn’t decided yet on a development plan for the property, and no construction timeline has been determined.

The scope of development likely will depend on parking requirements for potential land uses, Layton says.

Earlier development concepts aired there in recent years have ranged from a $20 million, six-story apartment complex to a $50 million, 35-story mixed-use tower.

Most recently, University Housing Partners, of San Clemente, Calif., explored developing an apartment complex there in 2016, shortly after an affiliate company developed the $10 million, 61-unit apartment building at 940 N. Ruby, a few blocks north of—and across the Spokane River from—the Downtown Midas Muffler site.

According to predevelopment documents submitted to the city of Spokane, University Housing Partners proposed a $20 million, six-story mixed-use building at 230 N. Division. The structure was proposed to include 12,000 square feet of retail space and a 100-space parking facility on the ground floor and five additional floors of apartments.

Before that, in 2015, Douglass proposed developing a mixed-use, 26-floor Falls Tower high-rise at that location.

The Falls Tower predevelopment application described an envisioned 16,000 square feet of commercial space, and a 10,000-square foot outdoor plaza on the ground floor. 

Predevelopment documents also proposed six floors of parking with 41,200 square feet of space per floor, 19 floors of apartments with 20,300 square feet of space per floor, and 5,400 square feet of top-floor common space.

Conceptual site plans attached to the Falls Tower application showed ground-floor space for up to eight commercial tenants ranging in size from 1,200 to 3,200 square feet, the largest of which would have been potential restaurant space with an additional patio.

The plans show a typical apartment tower floor with nine living units ranging in size from studio apartments to three-bedroom apartments, for a potential total of 171 units.

Russell C. Page Architects PS, of Spokane, performed the preliminary design work on the Falls Tower proposal.

The site currently is home to a single-story, 11,100-square-foot building that Downtown Midas Muffler vacated a number of years ago.