Major downtown construction projects such as the ongoing Davenport Grand Hotel and the recently completed Spokane Convention Center expansion, as well as planned historic Ridpath renovations, likely are drawing additional developer interest to the city’s core, says Jan Quintrall, the city’s business and development services director.

New projects being explored downtown include an envisioned retail and office building at the site of the long-halted Peppertree hotel project northwest corner of Division Street and Third Avenue and a high-rise project near Division Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard. In other projects, initial work on an auto dealership campus master plan is under way on along Second and Third avenues, and developers are looking at redeveloping an office building and parking facility just north of Interstate 90 on Stevens Street.

“We sure seem to be seeing some nice projects coming in, and people making solid investment plans,” Quintrall says.

 

Division & Third

Owners of the lot at the northwest corner of Division and Third, where a hotel project came to an abrupt halt during foundation construction in 2009, are exploring a new development option for the property.

On behalf of owners Rita and John Santillanes, Baker Construction & Development Inc., of Spokane, has approached the city with a preliminary concept for a two-story, 16,700-square-foot building with a construction value of $2 million.

“We’re working with Baker Construction, hoping to announce a project to put retail in there,” Rita Santillanes says.

Santillanes’ hotel company, Spokane-based Peppertrees of Washington LLC, also would consolidate its administrative offices in the building, she says. The company owns and operates Best Western Peppertree Plus hotels in Liberty Lake, near the Spokane airport, in Omak, and in Auburn, Wash.

As envisioned, the building at Division and Third would have 10,700 square feet of retail and restaurant space on the ground floor and 6,000 square feet of office space on the second floor.

Santillanes says the hotel offices would occupy about 3,000 square feet on the second floor.

“We have five offices spread around,” she says. “It would be much better for the organization to be under one roof.”

The consolidated headquarters would include the company’s accounting and marketing operations “and hopefully an office for me,” Santillanes says.

At best, construction would begin in the spring, and the project would be completed by the end of the year, she says.

The construction schedule depends, however, on obtaining tenant commitments prior to groundbreaking, Santillanes says.

“We want to make sure it’s 65 percent occupied before we start building,” she says.

Peppertrees of Washington had planned to develop a $9 million, 115-room hotel with a connected parking structure at the site in 2008, and initial foundation work was under way when the project financing fell through.

After Spokane hotelier and developer Walt Worthy announced plans to construct the Davenport Grand Hotel project near the Spokane Convention Center in 2012, the Santillaneses gave up on their hotel plans and put the Division and Third property up for sale, listing it for $2.5 million.

A community arts project consisting of street art on dozens of plywood panels now obscures the excavation site for the ill-fated Peppertree project, which is near one of the main gateways to the city for I-90 travelers (See related story about gateway improvement on page 25).

Santillanes says she took the property off the market recently after Barry Baker, CEO of Baker Construction, convinced her to test the viability of a retail project there.

“It’s a great adventure for us. All we’ve ever done is hotels,” she says. “I never would have thought to develop retail by myself.”

 

High-rise hopes

Spokane Valley dentist Philip Rudy has filed a predevelopment application with the city of Spokane that includes a preliminary concept for a mixed-use building that would be by far the tallest in the city.

Rudy is looking at developing a $50 million, 35-story tower at 230 N. Division.

The project site would include four adjacent parcels of land that total nearly 1 acre at the southeast corner of Division and Spokane Falls Boulevard. The property currently includes the 11,100-square-foot former Downtown Midas Muffler shop.

The envisioned building, tentatively named the Muffler Lot Building for planning purposes, would have retail, restaurant, office, and residential space, Rudy says.

The lower seven floors of the building would have 41,500 square feet per floor. The upper floors would have 14,100 square feet per floor, predevelopment documents say. The project also would include two levels of underground parking.

Rudy says the project is still in the idea stage, and it could be years from fruition.

“We’re making slow progress,” he says. “The next public action is to take it to the city’s design review committee.”

Rudy hasn’t selected a contractor or architect for the project yet.

 

Auto campus

The Larry H. Miller Group of Companies has begun to implement its downtown campus master plan, which includes as its initial project a $1.5 million addition to the historic International Harvester Co. building, at 1030 W. Third, says Sara Waldman, a spokeswoman for the Salt Lake City-based company.

The two-story, 8,000-square-foot addition will expand the building to 27,700 square feet. The building will contain the showroom and service facility for the Larry H. Miller Spokane Lexus dealership, Waldman says.

The project also includes rehabilitating the International Harvester building.

“It will look like it did when it was built,” she says.

The addition also will have limestone and brick masonry to match the historic building.

Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the contractor on the project, and John Mahoney Architect LLC, also of Tempe, designed it. Whipple Consulting Engineers Inc., of Spokane Valley, is providing engineering services.

The International Harvester building rehabilitation is part of a compromise between the city and the Larry H. Miller Group, which originally had planned a more modern exterior for the showroom building.

In exchange for historic restoration of the building, the company will be permitted to demolish two former automotive buildings on the south side of Third Avenue, Waldman says.

The project is a component of the company’s master plan for a roughly six-block area along Second and Third avenues and bordered on the west by Adams Street and on the east by Monroe Street. The campus plan includes the Larry H. Miller Spokane Honda dealership, at 1125 W. Second, and the company’s Spokane Toyota dealership, at 1208 W. Second.

“We’re working closely with the city to help revitalize area,” Waldman says.

Salt Lake City-based Larry H. Miller Group owns 55 dealerships in seven Western states, including the Larry H. Miller Hyundai Spokane dealership, at 8801 E. Sprague.

 

Office-parking

A Spokane group is considering redeveloping an office building and parking structure at 119 S. Stevens, in the Riverside District downtown, predevelopment documents on file with the city show.

The project would involve restoring a five-story office building at the southeast corner of Stevens Street and Railroad Alley Avenue, the documents show. The project also would include demolishing an adjacent parking structure and replacing it with a two-level parking structure.

Bernardo|Wills Architects PC, of Spokane, is designing the project.

Mike Stanicar, of Bernardo|Wills, referred questions about the project to Jeff McCloskey, a representative of the Spokane & Railroad development group, and owner of McCloskey Construction Inc., of Spokane. McCloskey couldn’t be reached for comment.

The mostly vacant building on Stevens was built in 1917. It would have 36,500 square feet of space, including a basement, when the project is complete, the predevelopment application shows.

The project cost is estimated at $2.8 million.

Preliminary site plans show the main floor would have two 1,000-square-foot retail bays fronting Stevens, and one 1,600-square-foot office space.

The second through fifth floors each would have space for two larger office tenants, preliminary plans show.

The garage and surface-parking portion of the project would have a total of 97 parking stalls.

The construction schedule for the project is estimated at one to five years, predevelopment notes say.

While predevelopment applications, such as for the potential Division & Third development, Muffler Lot Building, the Stevens & Railroad redevelopment show developers’ interests in downtown projects, not all predevelopment applications result in projects, says Louis Mueler, the city’s interim planning director.

“Predevelopment is very conceptual,” Mueler says. “It’s designed for them to gather information on zoning codes and what would be required.”