Groundbreaking delayed on SIRTI technology building

Higher costs for construction materials have forced officials to push back for two months the groundbreaking for a new downtown Spokane technology building.

Work on the new Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute Technology Center was due to start in September.

That date will be delayed two months as designers of the center, on the east edge of downtown Spokane, reconfigure the two-story building to save money.

The key price hikes have been on steel, wood and concrete, said SIRTI Associate Director Patrick Jones.

“It’s an increase of about half a million dollars” to a project that has to come in at under $4 million, Jones said.

SIRTI got $3 million from the federal government to start the center. The remainder will be found among local contributions and matching money, Jones said.

The technology center, which will have 28,000 total square feet of labs, offices and manufacturing space, is seen as an important part of an effort to turn the Riverpoint Higher Education Park into a biotech-health care center that will create jobs and attract companies to move here. It will include specialized “wet labs” — enclosed, environmentally secure space that includes water, electrical service and other mechanical controls — that are designed primarily for pharmaceutical or biotechnology research.

The two-month delay won’t hamper the overall goal of developing a University District on the east end of downtown, Jones said. On Wednesday, federal officials will announce two other grants that will help with the University District plan.

As architects confront the higher materials costs, the main change will be in revising how much of the building’s manufacturing or office space will be finished.

“We might turn some of those areas into shells” and come back later to complete the full construction, Jones said Monday. The goal of having 12,000 square feet of wet labs won’t be affected, Jones said.

SIRTI, a state agency that serves as a nonprofit business incubator, hopes to have half the center’s space committed to tenants by early next year. For the first two years of operation, SIRTI plans to assign its own staff to operate the tech center, said Jones. After that, the goal is for revenue earned through tenants and from product royalties to pay for its operation, he said.

One company now showing interest in the wet-lab space is Spokane-based MatriCal Inc., a maker of specialized biomedical devices. MatriCal has said it intends to rent space in the center if it lands a new federal grant.

SIRTI officials will ask for construction bids to be submitted by early October. The project is expected to be finished in June 2005.

The center will be built on undeveloped land at the corner of Pine and Riverside, south of Trent Avenue. The SIRTI Foundation paid $850,000 to Washington State University for that property.