Texas firm will raze Jensen-Byrd building, plans 125 units in new structure
The company that's buying the old 1909 Jensen-Byrd building in downtown Spokane has decided it will raze the structure rather than convert it.
Austin-based Campus Advantage paid $2.85 million to Washington State University for the buidling, which is roughly 136,000 square feet on land on the east end of downtown Spokane.
The plan is to demolish the old building and replace it with a five-story student apartment complex with 425 beds in two- and four-bedroom units with shared bathrooms and shared common areas.
Scott Duckett, a vice president with Campus Advantage, said the goal originally was to save the building -- which is not on the Spokane or the federal historic register.
But the interior components and other issues made that conversion too expensive, he said.
The company company plans to break ground in summer 2012 to meet an occupancy date of fall 2013. Its release can be found here.
Notably, WSU officials earlier this year turned down a similar offer with the same pricetage by Spokane developer Ron Wells. A story outlining the reasons WSU didn't select Wells' project will be in Thursday's edition of The Spokesman-Review and on Spokesman.com.
