Development companies that have started the permitting process to raze the former Jensen-Byrd building on Washington State University Spokane's Riverpoint Campus and replace it with an apartment structure are close to pushing the construction timeline back a year, says an executive involved in the project.

Scott Duckett, vice president of Austin-based Campus Advantage, a private developer of campus housing involved in the $25 million project, says that if the developers can't complete the project before the school year starts in the fall of 2013, they'll reschedule it to open in the fall of 2014.

"The timeline is still in the air because of certain unknowns in the permitting process," Duckett says. "We're kind of on the cusp."

Meantime, the purchase agreement hasn't closed on the property at 131 E. Main, which WSU agreed to sell in December for $2.9 million. Barb Chamberlain, a spokeswoman with WSU Spokane, says the university is in its due-diligence period concerning the sale of the Jensen-Byrd site to Campus Advantage, and the sale isn't contingent on the permitting process.

Campus Advantage and an affiliate, SH Acquisition LLC, of Santa Fe, N.M., have submitted an environmental application to proceed with the project.

The developers want to construct a five-story, 159,000-square-foot apartment building with 131 living units to replace the 103-year-old, six-story warehouse building east of downtown.

Whipple Consulting Engineers Inc., of Spokane Valley, is spearheading the application process, which because of the scope of the project is required under the State Environmental Policy Act before the developers can obtain demolition and building permits. The proposed demolition tentatively is scheduled for late spring or early summer, "followed shortly thereafter by construction of new multi-unit apartment building with opening planned for the 2013 academic year," the SEPA application says.

Environmental considerations include concerns for historic preservation, says John Halsey, who's coordinating the SEPA application for the city of Spokane's building services department.

"Most comments are from different historical preservation agencies and groups," Halsey says.

The public comment period for the SEPA application closes April 17.

The Spokane City-County Historic Landmarks Commission has determined that the Jensen-Byrd building is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Kristen Griffin, Spokane City County historic preservation officer, says the landmarks commission recognizes that the developers intend to construct a qualifying replacement structure, although it's up to other agencies to determine what that is.

"The building department will have the final say, probably in consultation with the planning department," Griffin says.

Voluntary measures should be identified with input from the landmarks commission "to mitigate the loss of this significant structure," she says, adding that the city's demolition ordinance doesn't require such measures. Voluntary mitigation measures could include documenting the architectural details of the structure with photographs and drawings and sharing historical information with the public with signage and plaques, Griffin says.

Spokane Preservation Advocates, a nonprofit organization that seeks to preserve and enhance historic features in the Spokane area, actively opposes the project and contends that the community would be better served if the Jensen-Byrd building were to be preserved and converted to student housing.

SPA this week nominated the Jensen-Byrd Building to be included in the National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

The National Trust, a Washington D.C.-based privately funded nonprofit, plans to hold its annual conference in Spokane in October, an event the organization says will attract some 2,000 preservation professional from around the country.

"Spokane has an admirable track record for caring for its historic fabric," says Barbara Pahl, an executive with the National Trust, in a press release about the nomination. "We look forward to exploring many of these places during our fall conference. We hope that the Jensen-Byrd building will be among them."

The developers have said that preserving the building isn't feasible, although they plan to reuse brick and interior beams from the Jensen-Byrd building in the new complex. The exterior of the planned new building likely will include masonry, wood, aluminum, and composite building materials, the SEPA application says.

The SEPA process will take several weeks to complete, Halsey says. If the city issues a determination of nonsignificance, it would be subject to a 14-day appeal period before the developers could obtain demolition and building permits.

As currently planned, the new structure would front on Main Avenue. Retail space is proposed on the ground floor of the structure, at the northeast corner of Main and Pine Street, he says.

The site currently is served by Main Avenue, which terminates east of the property line. Main Avenue will be improved along the proposed project frontage as part of the project, the application says.

No parking spaces are proposed for the project, and the project would eliminate some undefined onsite parking spaces. Halsey says the downtown urban land-use designation doesn't require that the developer provide parking.

"WSU will provide parking offsite nearby to any resident of the new apartment building," the application says.

Two earlier development proposals to restore and reuse the Jensen-Byrd Building under leases from WSU failed.

In 2008, the university approved a proposal by NexCore Group LP, of Denver, for a multiphase development that was to include a 60,000-square-foot medical office building at the southeast corner of Spokane Falls Boulevard and Pine Street. NexCore planned to redevelop the Jensen-Byrd building in a subsequent phase.

As the recession lingered, NexCore's lease options expired on that project before it could get off the ground and WSU voided the development agreement.

In an earlier call for development proposals in 2005, WSU selected a joint-venture proposal by Robert B. Goebel General Contractor Inc. and NAC|Architecture, both of Spokane, but the parties failed to finalize a development agreement.

The building has been vacant since 2004, when Jensen Distribution Services moved the last of its operations to its main facility on the West Plains, where it continues to operate today. Cougar Property Holdings, an arm of the nonprofit WSU Foundation, bought the building and other properties near it in 2000 and 2001 and later transferred ownership to the university.