JB LLC, the Seattle-based development company recently selected by Washington State University to redevelop the historic Jensen-Byrd Building and adjacent properties, has begun to share its $45 million-plus vision for the site with city planners.

A predevelopment application and accompanying site plan says JB LLC plans a market-based mixed-use development that would include improvements and additions to the Jensen-Byrd Building and attached structures.

The application, submitted by Wolfe Architectural Group, of Spokane, also says the development would include construction of a parking garage, new utilities, site grading, roadway and sidewalk improvements, and stormwater treatment and disposal amenities.

JB LLC, which is led by McKinstry Spokane LLC CEO Dean Allen and Seattle-based Trace Real Estate Services CEO Wally Trace, couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.

WSU Spokane spokeswoman Terren Roloff says the Jensen-Byrd project, mostly at the northeast corner of Pine Street and Main Avenue, is a potential gateway to connect the WSU Spokane campus to downtown Spokane.

Roloff says WSU earlier this year selected JB LLC to redevelop 4 acres of land, including the Jensen-Byrd Building and attached structures, because its proposal balances modern, energy-efficient development with preservation priorities for the sturdy brick-and-timber structure.

The site plans shows the Jensen-Byrd Building would have retail space at least on the main floor and multiple floors of professional office space, including a one-story office addition atop the 107-year-old building.

The existing two-story addition attached to the west side of the main building would be expanded into a four-story professional office building with some main-floor retail space.

The single-story addition attached to the east side of the main building would be converted into single-story retail or fitness space with a mezzanine level.

The site plans show the development would include a four-story, 420-stall parking structure to be erected on the north side of Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

The parking garage would be just east of the south landing for the $15.4 million, separately planned pedestrian-oriented Gateway Bridge that’s scheduled to be completed in 2018.

The Jensen-Byrd Building originally was built for Duluth, Minn.-based Marshall-Wells Hardware Co.

Jensen-Byrd Co., a Spokane hardware distributor later doing business as Jensen Distribution Services, bought the building in 1958. The nonprofit WSU Foundation bought the property in 2001 and transferred it to WSU in 2004, the same year that Jensen Distribution Services moved its warehousing operation to its large facility on the West Plains. Oak Brook Ill.-based cooperative Ace Hardware Group acquired Jensen Distribution last year.

The predevelopment application, though still early in the planning process, is a new high-water mark in attempts to ensure the future of the Jensen-Byrd Building, which was once slated for demolition. 

The building has been at the center of at least two failed attempts at private development, and the university had even explored selling it in 2011.