Spokane developer Mick McDowell says he plans to construct a 14-story, 50-unit condominium tower west of downtown, at the site where he had proposed a contentious project a decade ago.

The latest project, to be called the 1400 Tower, would be located on the north side of the 1400 block of west Riverside Avenue.

McDowell says he’s forming a consortium of entrepreneurial-minded investors to fund the project.

“We’ll be using private money to build the project prior to sales,” he says.

Though he’s still lining up investors, McDowell declines to disclose a cost estimate for the project or potential unit prices. 

He has scheduled a predevelopment conference next week, which would begin the planning process with the city.

Construction could begin in the fall, depending on how quickly private investors buy into the project, McDowell says.

The building would be developed on a steep hillside above the Peaceful Valley neighborhood. Buildings up to 150 feet tall are allowed on that portion of Riverside, McDowell says.

He has owned the property for more than 25 years, and he says the condominium idea has been germinating for many years. The project site had been occupied by the Riverside apartment building, which was demolished after it was damaged in a fire in the mid-1990s.

“We’ve been scheming on an appropriate high-quality high-rise since then,” he says.

The tower would have a total of 78,200 square feet of residential and common areas.

Two penthouses on the top two floors of the tower each would have 6,000 square feet of living space, McDowell says. Most of the other units would range from 800 to 2,000 square feet of living space.

The side facing Riverside Avenue would include a public plaza.

The project also would have a 46,400-square-foot, three-level parking garage with 75 covered parking spaces, a wash area, and storage space for residents.

The garage, as envisioned, would have a green rooftop with amenities that could include a patio deck, a putting green, a bowling lawn, a dog run, or a garden area. It would be accessed from Cedar Street in Peaceful Valley, McDowell says.

He says he hired internationally well-known real estate consultant The Danter Co., of Columbus, Ohio, to research the feasibility of such a project. The consultant evaluated sizing, pricing, location, amenities, and demographics, he says.

“The report came back positive,” McDowell says, adding, “The prime driver is the market.”

Yost Gallagher Construction LLC, of Spokane, is the contractor on the project, and Spokane architect Sam Nystrom, of Nystrom+Olson Architecture, is designing it, he says.

The project team is working within a “modified design-build” model that will enable the contractor and designer to collaborate throughout all phases of the project, potentially reducing costs and construction time, he says.

McDowell says that as the project committee chairman of the Spokane Public Facilities District’s recent $55 million Spokane Convention Center expansion, he was impressed by the design-build model used there.

“I felt strongly enough about the design-build paradigm, that I got certified, so I’m a design-build professional,” he says.

McDowell, a former Spokane firefighter, has bought, rehabilitated, and sold dozens of Spokane buildings since 1976, many of which were converted to affordable housing.

“I cut my teeth on usually derelict abandoned shells and brought them back into use with new systems, giving buildings another 100 years of functionality,” he asserts.

He also developed the $10 million, 56,000-square-foot AmericanWest-Banner Bank office building at 41 W. Riverside.

McDowell says his wife Shelley, former managing broker for the Spokane office of Coeur d’Alene-based Century 21 Beutler & Associates, will be the sales manager for the 1400 Tower condominium units.

McDowell claims the 1400 Tower building would emphasize “excellence and quality equal to any residential structure in the state of Washington.”

The project site is where McDowell had proposed to construct a 17-story condo tower before the Great Recession. 

That project, which had faced neighborhood opposition, was denied by a city hearing examiner largely due to it being over the neighborhood height restriction of 35 feet.

McDowell says a protracted legal dispute with the city resulted in a binding site plan enabling him to develop a residential high-rise off of Riverside Avenue, above Peaceful Valley.

“We’re working with the city to provide public amenities,” McDowell asserts.

For example, he says he plans to improve a city-owned staircase that provides a pedestrian connection between the Riverside District near downtown and the Peaceful Valley neighborhood below.