Walls start falling at Rookery

A demolition crew is slowly ripping the heart out of Spokane’s downtown Rookery Building following a two-year effort by preservationists to save the historic structure.

Clouds of dust and debris swirled in the wind Wednesday as workers removed bucketfuls of the 1934 building and dumped them into an awaiting truck bin. Portions of the Rookery’s landmark art deco façade were starting to fall.

“It just makes my heart ache,” said Joanne Moyer, a leader in the Spokane Preservation Advocates that had fought demolition with pickets and money. “It’s like a death in the family in Spokane.”

Removal of the Rookery and adjoining Mohawk Building on Riverside Avenue at Howard comes two years after the adjacent 1890 Merton Block building and a series of smaller structures along Sprague Avenue were torn down.

Owner Wendell Reugh delayed demolition of the Rookery and Mohawk while efforts were made by potential investors to strike a deal that would have saved the structures as part of a wider redevelopment of new and old buildings on the block in the center of downtown. The rubble on the block has been drawing complaints from neighbors.

Erika Bronson, a clerk at Northwest Map & Travel, 525 W. Sprague Ave., said, “Something needed to be done,” although she was saddened to see the buildings go.

Moyer said she believes that Reugh never wanted to sell the buildings because he had frustrated potential purchasers by changing terms during negotiations. But Reugh maintained that buyers had asked him to carry too much of the financial burden of any transaction.

Steve Gill, property manager for Reugh, said Wednesday that other potential investors had been waiting for demolition. He said the best use of the site is as a new multiuse development. Historic preservation, he said, just wasn’t “financially feasible.”

If no purchaser is found in the next several months, Reugh’s company plans to develop a parking lot, he said. The Spokane City Council in 2004 extended time limits on building demolition permits and in 2005 adopted an ordinance restricting demolition of downtown historic buildings so it is generally not allowed unless a new structure is going to take the place of an old one.

The city also sought to help potential purchasers close a deal. Ron Wells of Wells & Co. in Spokane submitted a proposal to the city in February but did not match it with a $100,000 deposit because of difficulty getting commitments from investors for the $4.8 million price.

Moyer said that in addition to legal limits on demolitions of historic buildings, owners of those structures should recognize a larger responsibility to the community of preserving the city’s architectural heritage. “It’s such a great loss to our streetscape on Riverside,” she said.