Vox Tower would be Spokane’s tallest building

Spokane developer Rob Brewster said he has financing lined up to build what could become the city’s tallest building. Brewster plans to fill in a parking lot on the east end of downtown with the $40 million, 32-story Vox Tower.

The tower would include 21,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, four stories of parking, 275 apartment units on 23 floors, and 12 luxury condominiums in the top four floors. The building would be constructed in what is now a parking lot in the middle of the block bounded by Riverside, Sprague, Browne and Bernard.

“They’ll have views of pretty much everything,” Brewster said of the 2,000- to 4,000-square-foot condos, which would range in price from $800,000 to $1.5 million. “You can see over the South Hill.”

That is, if Brewster can obtain city permission to build higher than 150 feet. Just one block west, at Washington Street, stands the city core’s boundary, within which developers can build as high as financing permits. Outside that core, said city Planning Director Steve Franks, the height limit is 150 feet, requiring Brewster to obtain a variance. Brewster has not submitted a permit application yet, Franks said.

If built as planned, the tower would be 300 feet, the tallest building in Spokane by about 12 feet, said Monte Miller, the Coeur d’Alene architect designing the project. Miller’s firm designed and built McEuen Terrace, a 14-story office and condominium tower in downtown Coeur d’Alene and is in the process of building the 18-story Parkside nearby. Both offer lake views and luxury living.

Miller said the Bank of America tower is Spokane’s tallest building, with 20 stories reaching 288 feet. Though the Vox Tower would have 32 stories, floor-to-ceiling heights in the retail, parking and apartment levels will be smaller than what has been built in the past, he said.

The sale of 12 condominiums on top will help keep rents in the apartments lower, Brewster said. A 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom unit would rent for about $1,100 a month, Brewster said. A 600-square-foot studio would go for about $684, he said.

The most recent edition of a market survey called The Real Estate Report lists a monthly range of $365 to $1,050 for one-bedroom units in Spokane County and $409 to $950 for two-bedroom units.

Brewster said he hopes to draw young professionals, students in the nearby University District and retired people who want to live downtown. A 2003 study commissioned by the Downtown Spokane Partnership showed demand for 1,500 additional residences in the downtown core by 2008.

The Vox Tower would sit amid several historic buildings Brewster owns and is renovating into office, retail and housing units.