The Dirt: Courtyard by Marriott in Spokane to get total remodel

A permit was requested last week to remodel both the interior and exterior of the Courtyard by Marriott near the Spokane Convention Center.

The hotel, at 401 N. Riverpoint Blvd., which includes more than 91,500 square feet, was built in the late 1980s and has undergone several updates, said Angie Bon, the project’s contact person for Johnson Braund, Inc., an architecture and interior design company based in Seattle.

“We are remodeling the whole thing, inside and outside,” Bon said. “I don’t know the construction schedule.”

While no contractor has yet to be named, Bon said the hotel owner hopes to begin construction later this year. Bon was not sure how long the remodel work would take to complete.

The expected cost of the project was listed at $3 million. Bon said she expected to know more about the construction schedule once permits were obtained and a contractor is hired.

WSU testing room

Just a couple blocks to the east of the Courtyard by Marriott, Washington State University has submitted a building-permit request to finish testing rooms inside of an existing building on the WSU’s Health Sciences campus in Spokane.

According to building documents, the work will consist of remodeling about 845 square feet of existing classroom space of the building, at 668 N. Riverpoint Blvd., that was built in 1997 and remodeled last year.

The work will include building a testing suite that includes six individual testing rooms.

“This is all interrelated to the medicine building renovation,” said Eric Smith, director of facilities and capital projects for WSU Spokane. “It’s the completion of an unbuilt room.”

The room wasn’t finished in the original scope of the last project, he said. “But, some additional funds have allowed us to complete some additional testing rooms,” he said.

The cost of the work was listed at $295,000.

Shopko demolition

Demolition on the old Shopko building location on Spokane’s South Hill has begun.

Instead of renovating the roughly 100,000-square-foot building, at 4515 S. Regal St., developers have submitted plans to build a 134,000-square-foot Home Depot.

About 28,000 square feet of that space will include a garden center and another 100,000 square feet will consist of retail space.

The South Regal Street property has remained untouched since Shopko closed its store in 2019 along with 362 others across the country.

The Shopko building has been for sale for years and was once listed by Kidder Mathews, a Seattle-based commercial real estate firm.

“Those large buildings are hard to sell,” said Monica Wallace, regional president of brokerage for Kidder Mathews, according to a previous Spokesman-Review story. “Buyers have to like the location, size and economic circumstances, which is certainly a smaller pool of tenants.”

James and Robert Samuel purchased the 13-acre property in 2015 for $10.5 million. Home Depot paid $10 for it in May, according to county records.

“I suppose that’s why they’re going to take it down,” Steve MacDonald, the city’s director of community and economic development, said in October when preliminary plans were received by the city.

At the time, MacDonald said the project could boost the local economy.

“The building has been vacant for years; it’s deteriorating and isn’t generating any sales tax,” he said.

Even in its early stages last year, City Councilman Ryan Oelrich said he was more wary of the $20 million project.

“I’ve heard from constituents who have seen people trying to break in or climb on top of the roof; it also gets vandalized, too, so activating the property would be good for that,” Oelrich said at the time. “But local hardware stores are in the area, too. What will happen to them?”

According to city records, the project is still under review. It has undergone and passed its transportation, waste, historic preservation and SEPA reviews.

It still must pass fire, sewer and water reviews before construction is permitted.

A new Home Depot store could employ 145 to 175 people, according to the project description submitted to the city.

City development director, MacDonald, said last year that the economic impact of the store could be substantial.

“This store could have a $2 million impact from the city’s portion of sales tax alone,” he said, basing the number on sales from the other Spokane Home Depot near the intersection of North Division Street and North Newport Highway

The new building would include a lumber canopy and a rental center.