The Spokane Public Facilities District board was to receive a final detailed report this week on plans for an estimated $60 million to $70 million expansion of the Spokane Convention Center, which the district expects to put before voters next year.

The project calls for the construction of about 91,000 square feet of new floor space on the downtown convention center's "east campus," adjoining the Group Health Exhibit Hall, which was completed in 2006.

As envisioned, the project would include the creation of a large new public terrace on the north side of the complex, facing the Spokane River and accessible by pedestrians from connecting stairs on the west side of the Division Street Bridge. It also would include extensive new landscaping along the heavily used portion of the Centennial Trail that parallels the river there and restoration of that stretch of riverbank.

"The real interesting part of this equation is we don't have to ask for much, if any, money," beyond an extension of taxing authority currently being used to pay for convention facilities here, says Mick McDowell, PFD board chairman.

If approved by voters, construction likely would begin in the first quarter of 2013 and take a year to a year and a half to complete and would create hundreds of construction jobs in the process, PFD representatives say.

Also, they assert that it would have a positive impact on convention business here, and hence the hospitality and retail industries, by enabling groups to meet here that desire or need more flexible space than the convention center now offers.

"That's what we're about—economic development. It's about creating jobs," says Kevin Twohig, the PFD's executive director.

A consultant's preliminary analysis indicated the proposed expansion would improve the marketability of the convention center by providing a better mix of space that is more attractive to a wider audience. While the new construction wouldn't significantly increase the size of groups the facility might attract, the greatest opportunity will be to market conventions with banquets for groups from 1,000 to 1,500 attendees, the consultant found.

Twohig and McDowell prefer to describe the proposal as the completion of a former project, rather than a new expansion, because the earlier convention center expansion originally was to include more space, but then was scaled back. This project basically would add back in that earlier envisioned space, which convention center users have been asking for virtually since the last expansion was completed, Twohig says.

Actual construction costs for the project currently are estimated at about $45 million, with design and other miscellaneous costs accounting for the additional $15 million to $25 million.

The roughly 91,000 square feet of new enclosed floor space would include about 25,000 square feet of added meeting space and about 18,000 feet of additional exhibit space, with the rest of the space being devoted to lobby, concourse, support, and service uses.

Last fall, the PFD selected LMN Architects, of Seattle, to prepare a conceptual design for the expansion, and LMN has been working on it with ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane; MW Consulting Engineers PLLC, of Spokane; and others on the envisioned project.

The additional space would be developed mostly on the north side of the current exhibit hall, and would encompass the area where the C.I. Shenanigan's building current stands as well as the arbor space to the west, over which the second floor of the expansion might cantilever, preliminary design plans indicate. The PFD bought the Shenanigan's property early last year.

The new construction would include expanding the current ground-level Exhibit Hall A to the north and east and adding a new multipurpose "flex space" on the second level, the plans indicated. Directly below, at ground level, a block of new meeting rooms would be located along the north edge of the site.