New Starbucks coming to west end of downtown

A new Starbucks is coming to Spokane, in a former credit union drive through on the west end of downtown, according to city permit data.

Global Credit Union has been leading construction on two blocks surrounding the intersection of Third Avenue and Walnut Street.

While it recently demolished a drive-thru coffee stand at that intersection to make way for a three-unit retail building and new parking lot, it’s putting $585,000 toward building another coffee shop just a block north. That work, too, will require the demolition of an existing structure: the small pyramid-shaped building the credit union used as a drive through teller.

The work is part of a two-block plan led by the credit union. Global’s five-story headquarters, built in 1979, sits in the middle of the project.

The credit union purchased nearly the entire block where the new retail is being built in 2016 for $4.85 million. The sale did not include the Maplehurst apartment building facing Maple Street on the same block or the small barnlike structure to its south.

All of the new buildings were designed by Wolfe Architectural Group, of Spokane. TD&H, also of Spokane, performed the structural engineering.