The five highest-value projects currently under construction in the Spokane area are all on track for their projected completion dates.

Valued at a total of nearly $150 million, the top five projects include Shaw Middle School, the Glover Middle School replacement, The Podium sportsplex north of downtown Spokane, and a warehouse in the McFarlane Industrial Park.

The highest-valued project is Shaw Middle School, at 4106 N. Cook, in the Hillyard neighborhood of north Spokane. The 150,000-square-foot building, valued at $46.2 million, also will be occupied by the Hillyard branch of the Spokane Public Library in a partnership between the library system and Spokane Public Schools.

Greg Forsyth, capital projects director for Spokane Public Schools, says the project is progressing well.

“Multiple areas of the building are dried-in, including the Hillyard Library portion of Shaw,” Forsyth says. 

Shaw Middle School was designed by Integrus Architecture PS, of Spokane. Spokane Valley-based Lydig Construction Inc. is the contractor.

Forsyth says the Glover Middle School replacement project also is coming along. The $43.5 million, 135,000-square-foot building is under construction at 2404 W. Longfellow.

“All of the steel is up, and we’ve got roofs on most of the structures, so now we’re trying to dry them in so we can continue to work on interior finishes,” Forsyth says.

The Glover Middle School project was designed by Spokane-based NAC Architecture. Missoula, Montana-based Jackson Contractor Group Inc. is the contractor on the project.

Both projects are expected to be completed in late summer 2021, in time for the 2021-22 school year.

On the periphery of downtown Spokane, in an area known as the North Bank, the $24.5 million sportsplex known as The Podium has risen at 511 W. Dean. Stephanie Curran, CEO of the Spokane Public Facilities District, which owns and will operate the facility, says smoky conditions in late summer and an unexpected October snow briefly delayed the 135,000-square-foot project, but it’s on track to be completed in August 2021.

Curran says the building now has a roof. The ventilation system and 4,000-seat bleachers also have been installed.

“They’re in the process of enclosing the building between now and Thanksgiving,” Curran says. “The next thing they’ll be doing starting around Thanksgiving will be excavating for the track.”

Curran says she meets with the design-build team of Lydig Construction and Integrus Architecture weekly to stay informed of the project’s progress and any potential issues.

In downtown Spokane, the renovation of the Spokane Public Library’s downtown branch is underway. The three-story, 117,000-square-foot building at 906 W. Main has been gutted down to its steel support beams and concrete floors.

According to the Spokane Public Library website, the $21 million project is expected to be completed in spring 2022. 

The first floor will be occupied by the LevelUp coworking space, a computer lab, program rooms, retail space, and a cafe. A new staircase will connect the first and second floors.

Library materials and a marketplace that will function as an extension of the adjoining River Park Square retail space will occupy the second floor, according to the library’s website. The third floor will host the Northwest Room, a new recording studio and music lesson space, a video studio, and possibly a radio station broadcast booth.

The downtown library renovation project is one of seven branches undergoing renovation or construction that were funded by a $77 million property tax bond passed by voters in 2018.

Rounding out the top five highest-valued projects under construction in the Spokane area, the $17.4 million McFarlane Industrial Park warehouse is on track to be completed in June 2021, says project owner Aaron Lake, co-founder of AT Acquisitions LLC, which does business as AT Industrial.

Located at 12315 W. MacFarlane Road, just west of the Spokane International Airport, the 187,000-square-foot warehouse will be the first structure of an envisioned business park. 

It was designed by Spokane Valley-based Architectural Ventures. Divcon Inc., also of Spokane Valley, is the contractor.

“We are just about to start erecting the tilt-up exterior wall panels,” Lake says. “Next is putting the roof on in December, then we start finishing the interior of the building in the spring.”

Lake says the warehouse has generated a great deal of interest, and AT Industrial plans to develop similar projects beginning next year, though a site hasn’t been selected yet for the next warehouse or industrial park project.