Passages Family Support purchases Sunset Pointe office building for $10.1 million

A Spokane-based outpatient mental health care and support services organization recently purchased a large office building in west Spokane to accommodate a future expansion that will include a peer respite home.

Passages Family Support bought the 69,000-square-foot Sunset Pointe office building at 1700 S. Assembly St. from Arger Sunset LLC for $10.1 million. The sale closed on Sept. 6, according to a Passages news release.

“They were looking to grow and we were able to work out a transaction where they would buy the building,” said Gene Arger, broker at G. Arger Co. Real Estate Inc.

Arger represented Arger Sunset LLC in the sale.

Passages has been leasing about 82% of the Sunset Pointe office building since 2018, using three floors for clinical services and business office activities, in addition to using 2,000 square feet of storage space in the basement, according to the organization. The remaining 18% of the building was vacant.

Passages, which has 60 employees, provides mental health assessments, treatment and support to children, youth and adults. It receives Medicaid funding via contracts with managed-care organizations.

The organization’s purchase of the building is expected to “produce long-term savings in operating expenses,” according to the news release.

Following the purchase, Passages is planning to build a peer respite home on 30,000 square feet of the site, which the organization describes as ideal for developing a home atmosphere isolated from commercial activities while benefiting from the proximity of its campus, staff and programs.

A peer respite is a voluntary, short-term, residential program that provides nonclinical crisis support.

The Washington state Department of Commerce awarded Passages a $1.9 million grant to build the peer respite home, which will have four bedrooms.

Respite guests, which must be enrolled in Apple Health Medicaid behavior health services, will be permitted to stay at the home for up to seven nights a month.

The peer respite home will be staffed 24 hours a day to provide support for guests. Eligible guests must be self-sufficient and have stable housing to return to upon leaving the peer respite home, according to Passages.

Yakima-based RJS Construction Inc. is the project contractor for the planned respite home. ROMR Architects, of Spokane, is the project architect.

Construction on the peer respite home will begin this fall and is slated for completion in July 2023.