Seattle-based mechanical and energy-efficiency contractor McKinstry Co. has bought the former Great Northern building just west of Hamilton Street on the north bank of the Spokane River and plans to invest $10 million in improvements there, says Dean Allen, the company's CEO.

McKinstry plans to consolidate its Spokane operations in the 52,000-square-foot building located at 802 E. Spokane Falls Blvd. along the southernmost bend in the river east of the Riverpoint Campus, and hopes to double the size of its Spokane work force there, to about 200, in its long-range plans, Allen says.

McKinstry's plans include developing a campus for green-technology companies in and around the Great Northern building.

The company plans to restore the building on the east edge of the University District, and nominate it to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, he says. McKinstry also will employ innovative technologies to make the building energy efficient, he says.

"It's a spectacular building that's more than 100 years old," Allen says. "We're working on preserving the historic character through thoughtful renovation, and we're excited about the challenge to incorporate innovations available to make it a high-performance building for the next 100 years."

McKinstry will occupy about half of the building and plans to lease out the rest of the structure. The company currently occupies a combined 18,000 square feet of leased space in two locations—at 4023 E. Central, in the Hillyard neighborhood, and in the Hutton Building, at 9 S. Washington downtown.

"If we're going to make a presence in a market, it will be based on the philosophy that we're going to be there forever," Allen says of the company's decision to own property here. "Our connection with innovation and partnerships made us think about the U-District."

McKinstry employs about 100 people here now, Allen says. "I expect we would be able to double as we continue to grow," he says.

The company has 15 offices throughout the West and has continued to grow, despite the recession, Allen says. McKinstry's overall revenues in 2009 were around $400 million, and Allen says he expects revenue gains of 5 percent to 10 percent this year.

"The demand for energy-efficiency retrofitting and facility optimization have been strong," he says. "That more than filled the void left by the softness in the new-construction market."

The company bought the Great Northern building from BNSF Railway Co. last week, after 18 months of negotiations, Allen says. "They had a modest, non-Superfund environmental cleanup they wanted to complete."

McKinstry also has bought the land and buildings occupied by The Habitat Store, just to the north of the Great Northern building. Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit that operates The Habitat Store, will remain on that property for up to a year.

Allen declines to disclose the terms of the real estate purchases, but says McKinstry plans to spend $10 million on improvements to the Great Northern building. Those plans include restoring large window openings and skylights that long have been covered or filled in with masonry blocks and mortar, and installing heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems, plumbing and fire-protection systems, and architectural metal features, he says.

Spokane-base Lydig Construction Inc. is conducting preconstruction work and likely will be the contractor on the overall restoration and renovation, Allen says. In another project, Lydig and McKinstry have formed a joint venture that has won a $33 million construction contract to upgrade mechanical, electrical, and control systems to increase energy efficiency in the Thomas S. Foley U.S. Courthouse downtown.

Billings, Mont.-based CTA Architects Engineers is designing the Great Northern project, the Spokane office of Bellevue-based DCI Engineers Inc. is doing the civil and structural engineering work, and the Spokane office of Tacoma-based AHBL Inc. is the landscape architect.

The structure was erected in 1907 as a maintenance, repair, and fabrication facility for the Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad Co. (SIERR), and is one of the largest standing buildings left from Spokane's electric railroad era, Allen says.

The Spokane City-County Historic Preservation Office says SIERR, operated a "network of freight and passenger service along 250 miles of track radiating from Spokane south to the Palouse wheat district and east to Coeur d'Alene."

That railroad, however, didn't last long. By 1919, SIERR was placed into receivership, and the building eventually became the property of Great Northern Railway Co., which operated it as a diesel locomotive and railroad equipment maintenance facility until the 1950s. It then was converted into a trucking warehouse.

In 1970, Great Northern Railway merged with several other railroad companies that formed Burlington Northern Railroad, which later became BNSF Railway Co.

Taylor-Edwards Warehouse & Transfer Co., of Spokane, began leasing space there in 1956, and its name still is visible on part of the building. The faded name of another company that was located there for a time, the Spokane Culvert & Fabricating Co., also is visible above two dock-loading doors there.