The Dirt: Spokane Valley City Hall work begins
Demolition work has begun as part of the process to upgrade the 5-year-old Spokane Valley City Hall.
The new construction work is the latest chapter of a story that started not long after the building was completed in 2017. City officials discovered the northeast wall of the building was sinking.
In April 2020, the city sued Meridian Construction and the firms that helped designed the building at 10210 E. Sprague Ave. in an effort to force those businesses to pay for the repairs.
A trial is scheduled to begin this summer in Spokane County Superior Court.
In the meantime, the city hired Garco Construction, which has started to demolish part of the structure, said Glenn Ritter, the city project manager and senior engineer.
Garco is the primary contractor and the architect is Lisa Clark Moe of Seattle-based Amento Group, Ritter said.
Ritter said he hopes to start construction by mid-July “and have it done by the end of the year,” he said. “We are doing work inside of the chambers as well.”
The permit estimates the cost of the work at $2.85 million. But, the Spokane Valley City Council voted to spend up to $4.4 million on both the design and construction.
Third warehouse on McFarlane
Spokane Valley-based development company AT Industrial has submitted a permit request to the city of Spokane to build its third massive warehouse on the West Plains near Spokane International Airport.
In 2021, the company built 203,840-square-foot warehouse at 12315 W. McFarlane Road “on spec for Amazon,” said JoAnne Watts, who is the director of commercial operations for Leavitt Capital, which is the property-management arm of AT Industrial.
The company then built McFarlane 2, which was a similarly sized warehouse at 11307 W. McFarlane Road. It’s part of the West McFarlane Business Park near the southeast corner of Russell Street and McFarlane Road, just west of the airport.
“We have that leased to four tenants so far, and that has taken over 50% of the occupancy of that building,” Watts said.
Plans are now progressing for McFarlane 3 on a portion of vacant land 10921 W. McFarlane Road. The new building will include 40,560 square feet of office space and 162,240 square feet of warehouse space for a total of 202,800 square feet.
The estimated building cost is listed at $12.4 million.
The building is being designed by Portland, Oregon-based VLMK Engineering + Design and 541 Architecture, also of Portland. Watts said she expects the contractor will be Divcon Inc., of Spokane Valley.
“We just put in for the permit and we are starting as soon as we can get the permit approved,” Watts said. “We are finding the 20,000-square-foot spaces are a sweet spot for Spokane.”
New Gonzaga residence hall
Officials with Gonzaga University have submitted a building permit request with the city of Spokane to build a 94-room residence hall at 803 E. Sharp Ave. in Spokane.
The 49-foot-tall building would house 27,026 square feet of space for residential rooms and would also include a 465-square-foot seminar room.
The applicant was listed as Ken Sammons, Gonzaga’s associate vice president for plant and construction services. Efforts to reach Sammons were unsuccessful.
The location of the planned residence hall is on the southeast corner of the roundabout at North Cincinnati Street and East Sharp Avenue. It’s a block due west of Jack and Dan’s Bar & Grill, 1226 N. Hamilton Street.
The contractor is listed as Walker Construction, of Spokane. The project architect is Gabe Benson of Wolfe Architectural Group, also of Spokane.
Projected cost of the new residence hall is listed at $12.75 million.