Apartment developer and contractor Inland Washington LLC, of Spokane Valley, has obtained building permits for a $12.8 million, 150-unit senior apartment complex it plans to develop in the Wandermere area, near Mead High School.

The project site, which is zoned for high-density residential and mixed uses, is on an 8-acre parcel of land at 12710 N. Mill Road, just north of the Fairwood Retirement Village, plans on file with Spokane County show.

The project, named Traditions at Mill Road, will include a 138,600-square-foot building with three above-ground floors and a basement, permit application information and plans show. It also will have seven ground-level garage structures with a combined total of 58 parking stalls lining the south edge of the property and 189 uncovered parking spaces on the north and south sides of the main building, the plans show. A 5,200-square-foot clubhouse is to be constructed west of the main apartment building.

Kyle Twohig, Inland Washington's construction developer, says he expects construction to commence within a month, pending finalization of construction financing. The project is expected to be completed in 14 months, Twohig says.

Inland Washington's construction division will be the contractor on the project, which was designed by The Architects Office PLLC, of Boise. J.R. Bonnett Engineering LLC, of Spokane, is the civil engineer on the project.

Individual one- and two-bedroom apartments will range in size from 500 to 800 square feet of living space, Twohig says.

The main access to the development would be from Mill Road, which abuts the north side of the parcel.

The permit application information says the developer expects that about 225 middleincome seniors will reside at Traditions when it's fully occupied.

Inland Washington also is developing and building two large apartment projects on the South Hill.

The largest of those is the $20.3 million, 232-unit Palouse Family Apartments, under construction at 3210 E. 44th. That complex will have 10 three-story buildings, each with 20 to 24 apartments.

The other project, Traditions at South Hill, which is to be constructed on an adjacent parcel at 3270 E. 44th, is in the plan-review stage of the city of Spokane's permitting process. Like Traditions at Mill Road, the $14.1 million Traditions at South Hill will have 150 units for senior tenants in one main building.

Traditions at Mill Road has been in the works for a couple of years, Twohig says.

"Getting financing through HUD is a slow process," he says. "It's happening at the same time we've got the South Hill project in plan review."

Separately, Inland Washington is the contractor on the $25.7 million, 256-unit Pine Springs Farm apartment complex that The Wolff Co., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based development company with Spokane roots, is developing at 3711 S. State Route 27, just south of Spokane Valley.

The company also was the contractor on the recently completed $13 million, 180-unit Ridge at Midway apartment complex, at 16320 N. Hatch, in Colbert.

Twohig says the demand for rental units has remained steady, despite—or perhaps because of—the overall weak economy.

"My impression is that the market is OK," he says. "Securing financing, however, is not an easy process."

Glenn Crellin, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research, at Washington State University, says apartment vacancy rates throughout the state have been trending downward for more than a year.

"We're starting to see some new construction in the apartment sector," he says.

An annual spring apartment-sector survey conducted by the center showed the Spokane County apartment vacancy rate was 5.1 percent as of last March—the lowest rate in the annual spring survey since March 2008, when the vacancy rate was 3.8 percent.

"The apartment community likes to see the vacancy rate at about 5 percent," Crellin says.

Demand for senior apartments likely is growing, he says.

"The population clearly is aging, and households are looking to downsize if they can afford to do so," he says.