Developer completes $6.5 million mixed-use apartment project in downtown Spokane

A prominent developer in the region recently completed renovations to a historic building that brings dozens of new apartments to downtown Spokane.

Spokane-based Black Enterprises finished a $6.5 million conversion this month of the historic James S. Black Building into the Marjorie Apartments, a 50-unit mixed-use project at 107 S. Howard St.

The project was named in honor of Marjorie Black Peterson, who along with husband, James S. Black, founded James S. Black & Co. in 1958.

The company has since grown into NAI Black, one of the region’s largest commercial real estate brokerage and property management firms, owned and operated by Marjorie’s son, Dave Black.

“I am so excited to see the completion of this project honoring my mom and dad’s legacy of real estate development and service to the Spokane community,” Dave Black, CEO of NAI Black, said in a statement.

The six-story apartment project is nearly 100% leased and renovation of the Wave Restaurant and Sushi Bar on the building’s ground floor is almost complete.

The reopening is scheduled for later this month, according to an NAI Black release.

Spokane based Baker Construction was the general contractor for the project.

NAI Black occupied the James S. Black Building – also known as the Columbia Building – for more than 46 years before the company moved to 801 W. Riverside Ave. in 2018.

The Columbia Building was built in 1907 for Judge George Turner, the property’s original owner.

Turner, a Spokane pioneer, was one of Spokane’s “most celebrated and successful lawyers,” according to a Spokane Register of Historic Places nomination.

Turner commissioned early Spokane architects Herman Preusse and Julius Zittel to design the building, one of Spokane’s first fireproof structures after a fire in 1889 destroyed 30 blocks in downtown Spokane.

Turner served as an associate Washington state Supreme Court justice and a U.S. senator and was a leader in drafting the Washington state Constitution. He also practiced law at various firms in Spokane.

The James S. Black Building was added to Spokane’s Register of Historic Places in 2019.

The building went through several owners before James S. Black and Marjorie Black Peterson purchased it in 1970.

Prominent Spokane architect Warren Heylman completed a significant remodel to the building in 1972.

The building was dedicated in the 1980s as the James S. Black Building.