A recent string of projects and initiatives occurring along east Sprague Avenue appear to have kindled a surge in excitement among business owners there.

The emergence of the Playfair Commerce Park, other new construction, and a collaborative effort with the Spokane Police Department to reduce crime, vandalism, and prostitution in the last year is changing attitudes about the community.

Of the differences in the neighborhood surrounding her business now, compared with 2006, when she moved it to 2202 E. Sprague, LaVerne Biel says, “Oh, man. It was like that Doobie Brothers song, ‘Takin’ it to the streets.’’’

Biel owns Access Unified Networks, a company that provides businesses with telephone systems and offers data networking management services.

“The best way to say it is that there was a lot of unwelcome activity. But that’s just not the case anymore,” Biel asserts. “Business owners and the community are working together, and people know each other.”

She now brings her dog to work, walks it during the day, and uses the opportunity to get to know her neighbors.

Biel and other business owners point to those improvements as one reason that half-a-dozen projects with a total value exceeding $17 million are underway, or soon will be getting underway, in the East Spokane neighborhood.

Construction started in November on the $7 million One South Madelia apartment complex that will be located on the southeast corner of Sprague and Madelia. The project is scheduled to be completed within the year.

In October, Rob Brewster announced plans to renovate the McKinley School building on Napa Street, a block north of Sprague. Expected to take two years to develop, a final project cost and scope hasn’t been set.

In August, Frontier Behavioral Health announced plans to build a 15,000-square-foot, two-story intensive outpatient center at the southwest corner of Sprague Avenue and Lee Street. The project is estimated to cost $4.3 million and is scheduled to be completed by the end of next year.

Also, construction is underway on a $5 million warehouse building at the Playfair Commerce Park that will be the third such building there. 

The efforts of the East Spokane Business District appear to be playing a positive role, starting with engaging the city of Spokane and the Spokane Police Department.

The East Sprague district will be receiving more than $50 million in public infrastructure improvements over the next three years, targeting residential road maintenance and housing rehabilitation, neighborhood representatives say.

As for crime-fighting efforts in the area, Spokane Police Capt. David Richards says in a November report to the East Spokane Business Association that increased patrolling in the area have reduced the number of prostitution calls in the East Central area by 81 percent in the last year. Richards also says in the report that “quality-of-life incidents and crimes” have been reduced significantly in the area.

“There’s been a stigma of drug use and prostitution in East Central for years, and the community wants to change that,” says Kim Crumpacker, contract administrator for Playfair Commerce Park.

Bordering Ferry to the north and Sprague to the south, the Playfair Commerce Park will encompass 12 buildings on 63 acres of land.

That project began in 2013, and the first buildings constructed there were Scafco Corp.’s corporate offices and Scafco Steel Stud Manufacturing Co. buildings at 2800 E. Main.

Lawrence Stone, Scafco’s president and CEO, also heads Playfair Commerce LLC. Stone bought 48 acres of the 63-acre former Playfair horse racing track property from the city of Spokane in 2010 for $2.1 million. He bought another 10 acres from the city at the beginning of this year.

Lawrence B. Stone PPTY Construction LLC was the contractor on the Scafco headquarters and stud plant projects that were completed in 2013. Those projects included constructing a $3.6 million, 24,000-square-foot, two-story office building and a connected $5.7 million, 113,600-square-foot manufacturing building.

The first warehouse building was constructed in 2014 at 301 N. Haven east of Scafco’s headquarters. It has a total of nearly 71,000 square feet of space with 7,500 square feet of space that has yet to be leased, says Mark Lucas, Kiemle & Hagood Co.’s industrial specialist broker.

Construction started in October on the third structure, a 52,000-square-foot facility at 2500 E. Ferry. It has 27,500 square feet of space still available for lease, Lucas says.

The second warehouse building built last year at 2600 E. Ferry, has a total of nearly 64,000 square feet, with close to 20,000 square feet still available for lease. It’s located just northwest of Scafco’s headquarters.

When fully completed, the park is expected to encompass 800,000 square feet of warehouse space.

Crumpacker says the East Sprague area is fragmented due to Interstate 90, and the neighborhood is split north and south. Despite those challenges, he says, the area is seeing a lot of recent invigorating growth.

“There’s a renaissance occurring in East Spokane, and businesses and residents are extremely excited,” Crumpacker says.

Commerce park representatives currently are working with the city of Spokane and are constructing a road that will connect Ferry and Altamont, making the business park more accessible to East Spokane businesses.

Called the Altamont Street Connector, the commerce park will pay $1 million for the road.

“It’s a large business park and we want to use that road to feed goods to the east side businesses,” Crumpacker says.

Jim Hanley, owner of the Tin Roof furniture company, at 1727 E. Sprague, and a past president of the East Spokane Business Association, says the business association lobbied the city and Stone to make the commerce park transaction happen.

“The group just keeps focusing on getting business developed,” says Hanley of the East Spokane Business Association.

In addition to new construction, the business community has taken an active role in helping to clean up surrounding neighborhoods, Hanley says.

 “We had about a dozen cleaning days where work crews cleaned the area. One day they hauled away 1,400 pounds of trash,” Hanley says.

Darrell Smith, who started working at the Boyd-Walker Sewing Machine Co. at 1926 E. Sprague 37 years ago, says the neighborhood has never looked better.

“It was starting to get close to bottoming out when I got here,” Smith says. “But it looks much, much better now. The revitalization is really working.”

Biel encourages business owners to consider East Spokane as a place to relocate their operations.

“It’s close to downtown without the high overhead of downtown and parking—knock on wood—is still free,” Biel says.

Adds Hanley, “People are buying homes and either fixing them up or tearing them down and rebuilding altogether. East Central is centrally located, and real estate prices are still reasonable.”