Downtown revival, june 25,2017

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SUN. JUNE 25, 2017

A scene outside Boots Bakery & Lounge on Main Avenue reflects a trendy vibe that helps define a changing downtown Spokane.

JESSE TINSLEY THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

DOWNTOWN EDGES COME TO LIFE

TURNING OLD INTO GOLD

SPECIAL WISH LIST FOR OUR FUTURE

RICH HISTORY DEFINES SPOKANE

The growing University District to the east and mixed-use Kendall Yards to the west have redefined an expanding downtown.

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Armando Hurtado and Josh Hissong overhauled the old Carr’s Corner Bar, creating a trendy office space for the architecture firm.

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Shawn Vestal likes what’s happening to downtown, but asks for some help in figuring out what additions would make Spokane even better.

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Historian and writer Jim Kershner takes a decade-by-decade look at the incredible changes in the growth of downtown Spokane.

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THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

JUNE 25, 2017

HOW WE GOT HERE

COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

The rescue of the historic Davenport Hotel gave Spokane movers and shakers confidence to push for more downtown transformations.

Key restoration saves, defines Elegant, shuttered hotel seemed statement about city’s bleak future. Then, a comeback.

So really, what defines the When I first moved to PAUL Spokane way?

Spokane in early 1988, there TURNER For those on the inside of was a big, fat tombstone the deals, the key has been right in the middle of downtime (and timing) – a coming town. together of multiple factors It was called the Daventhat finally make a project port Hotel. And it squatted pencil out. Even if that means like an oversized anvil on waiting years for the stars to this city’s hopes of being a align. place with a future, not just a For the rest of us, those on the outside, prideful past.

Closed and without real prospects of a belief in downtown’s sustained vireopening, it was a museum piece the ability can be a matter of reborn faith.

Now I don’t pretend to speak for size of a city block. It was a modestly oreverybody. But for many of us, the Davnate mausoleum.

When you walked around in down- enport comeback changed everything.

If that rescue could happen, why not town, there was a lot to see. Some good, some not so much. But always, there others?

Given enough time, who knows what stood the shuttered Davenport. It mocked hopes and dreams for Spokane. might happen in Spokane?

Instead of seeing all the reasons someIt seemed to say, “This city has had its thing couldn’t or wouldn’t work, it beday.”

It was depressing. It was the visual came possible to entertain visions of bold, exciting outcomes. equivalent of a soft, low moan.

“I’ll believe it when I see it” evolved Attempts to resuscitate it seemed, well, a bit naive. I mean, when a down- into “Why not?”

It is an altogether different mindset town’s trend line seems to be pointing down, how often does it kick back up from slow surrender.

OK, that’s certainly not unpreagain?

Yes, Expo ’74 had been a shot in the cedented in the Lilac City. The story of arm. But by the end of the next decade Spokane is populated with dynamic some wondered if the fair had been a last characters who envisioned something gasp instead of the hoped-for launch better and then made it happen.

But those watching downtown in repad.

Then something remarkable hap- cent decades have noted the success stopened. The Davenport was saved. You ries. It has unquestionably helped shape know the story. Chances are, it still this city’s belief in its own resilience.

When you think about it, that’s huge. makes you marvel and shake your head.

Remember when the Davenport was Other restorations followed. The Fox Theater went from an ungainly, carved closed? Compare that to now.

Oh, sure. It isn’t hard to find pessiup multiplex movie house to a showplace theater. The Steam Plant fired up a mism in Spokane. Sometimes it seems like we are the home office for dyspepnew incarnation.

The list of restored or revamped land- sia.

Moreover, this city is haunted by marks goes on. some seriously sobering social statistics.

So what has been the magic?

Still, the Davenport and other sucSome say it has been a poky local economy with a sometimes lethargic cesses have, I believe, facilitated a civic commercial development sector. The fi- attitude makeover. And really, doesn’t a nancial incentive to knock down aging slightly more positive outlook influence buildings and erect in their place shiny our perspective on virtually everything?

I think you could make that argument. new towers has not always been there.

Rescued buildings such as the DavenSome say it is Spokane’s supposedly port are not really defined by the strucspecial regard for historic structures.

But our civic preservation tendencies tures themselves. They are, of course, notwithstanding, it seems likely that if about the people who bring them to life certain developers could have made mo- on a daily basis.

By that measure, downtown Spokane ney bulldozing our brick-and-mortar seems to be alive and kicking. heritage, they would have.

– Your neverending story – Has only just begun.

Founded in 1995, the Downtown Spokane Partnership has been there serving as your downtown advocate for every milestone over the last 20 years . We can’t wait to be a part of the next chapter.

For more information about Downtown Spokane visit: downtownspokane.org

FILE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

The Fox Theater restoration helped define a dramatic change in downtown.

THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

JUNE 25, 2017

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HISTORIC PLACES

Top 12 historic buildings

By Mike Prager THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

There are so many historic buildings in downtown Spokane that it’s hard to choose the best ones.

Here is a list of the best ones as chosen by The Spokesman-Review in consultation with two experts – Dave Shockley, a founder of the Spokane Preservation Advocates and its current executive coordinator, and Linda Yeomans, a leading preservation consultant who has written numerous historic register nominations for downtown buildings.

No. 1 Asked for the top historic building, Shockley thought for a moment. “I think it’s the Davenport Hotel,” he said.

Yeomans agreed: “If we go with exterior and interior, I would have to say the Davenport.”

The ornate 1913 Davenport Hotel at 10 S. Post St. was the work of renowned architect Kirtland Cutter for famed restaurateur and hotelier Louis Davenport.

Its exterior uses rustic Boise sandstone topped by terra cotta ram’s heads over the third floor. Florentine windows decorate the original top floors with diaper-patterned brickwork.

The interior is where the Davenport shows off with its Spanish Renaissance style, opalescent glass skylight, carved wood, central marble fountain and massive fireSee BUILDINGS, 4

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Morning fog envelops the Steam Plant Square stacks in October 2015 in downtown Spokane.

The Steam Plant supplied heat to more than 300 buildings in downtown Spokane from 1916 until 1986.

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THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

JUNE 25, 2017

HISTORIC PLACES

TYLER TJOMSLAND/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

The Spokane Symphony holds a concert for the first of two groups of roughly 1600 area fourth-graders on Oct. 17, 2012, in Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox.

BUILDINGS Continued from 3 place. Being so accessible to the public is one of the Davenport’s great charms. Walt and Karen Worthy finished restoration and reopened the hotel in 2002.

No. 2 Also having a great public presence is the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox at No. 2.

Built in 1931 in the depth of the Great Depression, the Fox Theater at Sprague and Monroe became a place to escape the state of the economy back then.

According to the city of Spokane’s heritage walking tour, “Anthony Heinsbergen, one of Hollywood’s most sought-after interior designers, created the one-of-a-kind Depression-era murals” on the walls of the lobby, mezzanine and lounges of the theater and extending into the balcony.

The addition of Martin Woldson’s name was in honor of the father of Myrtle Woldson, an early contributor to the Fox Theater restoration, which was completed in 2007 at a cost of $31 million by the Spokane Symphony.

No.3 Next on the list, again partly because of public accessibility, is the 1916 Steam Plant, which provided piped heat throughout the downtown area through 1986.

The building, 159 S. Lincoln St., is easy to find with its towering twin smokestacks, which are slated for brick maintenance this year.

The restaurant and bar offer an intimate look at the heart of industrial America.

It is an intriguing warren of pipes, steel, boiler-room seating and the always fascinating stack room. Open the door, walk inside, feel the air rush by and look up.

Nos. 4 & 5 In the central downtown area stand two big office buildings across from each other: the Paulsen Building and the Old National Bank Building.

The 11-story Paulsen Building, 421 W. Riverside Ave., was constructed from 1908 to 1911 for silver magnate August Paulsen and designed by J.K. Dow and C.Z. Hubbell.

It was joined in 1929 by the 15-story Paulsen Medical and Dental Building.

Paulsen was working in a dairy in Wallace, Idaho, when he bought a quarter-interest in the Hercules mine for $850 in 1896, according to a historic register nomination.

The Old National Bank Building, 422 W. Riverside Ave., is considered a pure example of the Chicago style by architect Daniel H. Burnham. The 1908 building is 16 stories high.

No. 6 The 1890 Review Building at Monroe and Riverside has housed The SpokesmanReview and its predecessors, the Spokane Falls Review and the Spokesman, since 1893.

The seven-story building follows the

and Sprague is known as one of the early venues for Bing Crosby, who grew up in Spokane and left for Hollywood.

The 1915 theater was built by August Paulsen as the city’s first theater devoted to motion pictures.

It was renovated as the Met Theater in 1991 and renamed the Bing Crosby Theater in 2006.

and restoration by developer Steve Schmautz along with his wife, Tresa, in 2003.

The reconstruction brought back the original French mansard roof that was destroyed by fire in 1939. The building is a fine example of the commercial Renaissance Revival style.

No. 11

There are plenty of runners-up: the Spokane County Courthouse (not downtown technically), the Ridpath Hotel, the Flour Mill, the Montvale Hotel, Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral, the Whitten Block, the Miller Block, the Corbin House, the Marycliff High School campus and Clark House, historic Fire Station No. 1, the Masonic Temple, Old City Hall, Spokane City Hall (originally Montgomery Ward building), the Crescent Building, the Washington Cracker Company Building, the Great Northern Clocktower, the Realty Building, the Hutton Building and the former Northern Pacific Railroad depot (which serves as Spokane’s Amtrak station), to name just some of them.

Lewis and Clark High School, 521 W. Fourth Ave., was completed in 1911 and renovated by Spokane Public Schools in 2001.

“What remains of the building’s exterior continues to be one of the finest examples of the Collegiate Gothic Style in Spokane and is an outstanding example of the work of prominent Spokane architect Loren L. Rand,” according to the city’s historic preservation website.

FILE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Low-hanging clouds slide by the moon as it passes behind the Review Tower.

No. 12 The 1901 Legion Building at Riverside and Washington earns its ranking in part because of the acclaimed reconstruction

Runners-up

line of Riverside, while the high tower and turret with curved windows are architecturally unique.

No. 7 The recently-restored 1928 City Ramp Garage, 430 W. First Ave., is an art deco jewel. Drivers pull into the garage and have an attendant park their cars while they go off to do their business.

According to the Spokane Historical website, “It was Spokane's first multi-level, staggered-floor, ramp-type parking garage.”

No. 8 The first publicly owned building on the list is the historic downtown post office building at Riverside and Lincoln, across from the historic Empire State Building and on the same block as the Review Tower.

The 1909 post office opened to great fanfare and was the center of deliverable communication in its day.

As many as 2,600 people would enter its doors during the evening hours in those days.

The building is a mix of of beaux-arts classicism and Second Renaissance Revival in a Greek temple feel.

No. 9 The Spokane Chronicle Building was completed in 1928 in a design by Kirtland Cutter and Karl Malmgren as the home of the former Spokane Chronicle afternoon newspaper, which was folded into The Spokesman-Review in the early 1990s.

Its entry way is exquisite, with carved wood and transom lights containing stained-glass figures of medieval scribes.

The top floor is lined with gargoyles that act as printers’ devils, according to the Downtown Spokane Heritage Walk.

No. 10 The former Clemmer Theater at Lincoln

COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Lewis and Clark High School opened in 1912 after the previous building, South Central High School, burned to the ground in 1910.

DOWNTOWN SPOKANE W W W. J I G S A W B O U T I Q U E . C O M O P E N E V E R Y D AY

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THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

JUNE 25, 2017

RIVERFRONT PARK

DAN PELLE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Under a blanket of clouds, the U.S. Pavilion and the Clock Tower in Riverfront Park dominate the Spokane skyline in this February 2015 photo.

Park’s past faces future Rides, IMAX still have fans as redesign takes shape

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By Kip Hill THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

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David Evans, the chief site designer for Expo ’74 in the heart of Spokane’s downtown, returned recently after 40 years away to the same South Hill home he lived in while developing several plans that came to life in what is now Riverfront Park.

“Riverfront Park has, as long as I remember, had a yin yang tug between the priorities of nature vs. commerce, passive vs. active, native vs. developed and funded vs. self-sustaining,” Evans wrote in a letter to The SpokesmanReview this month about his view of the park’s renovation. The renewal of the park is taking shape this summer funded by more than $64 million worth of bonds purchased with taxpayer money.

In recent months, the board of volunteer citizens guiding the redevelopment grappled with another conflict: past vs. future. Those discussions have centered on whether to keep amusement rides and IMAX theater, and if the city should re-cover the U.S. Pavilion gifted by the federal government.

The pavilion’s cover was removed in 1979.

What is the new park going to be, and how is that different from what it has been?

Those leading the efforts to renovate the 100acre attraction in the middle of Spokane’s downtown envision a place where concerts and other marquee events fill a signature pavilion. On the south bank of the river, the park will have a ribbon for skaters (ice- and roller-) and the historic Looff Carrousel will have a new home. The IMAX theater is slated for demolition as part of the pavilion’s overhaul.

The north bank, where a final design has not been

Approximate costs and completion dates

Park grounds, infrastructure and playgrounds

U.S. Pavilion/ event center

New Looff Carrousel building and visitors center

Public safety, improved access and lighting

Future ice ribbon

Improved park shelters

Reserve contingency

$20 million

$24 $24 million million

$4.5 $4.5 million million

$2.8 $2.8 million million

$2.2 $2.2 million million

$2 $2 million million

$4.5 $4.5 million million

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SOURCE: City of Spokane Parks and Recreation

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RIVERFRONT PARK

RIVERFRONT Continued from 6 solidified, would feature a regional playground that explains how an ice age shaped the plant life and geography of the Inland Northwest.

But a vocal group that remembers the park’s past is encouraging planners not to abandon the rides or IMAX. The rides have usually more-than covered their cost of operation. The IMAX in recent years has operated at a loss.

From his office seven stories above downtown, Spokane Mayor David Condon can see the new park taking shape. During an interview earlier this month, the mayor climbed atop a couch to see workers pouring cement into frames for the new ice ribbon feature, expected to open in November.

“You have these ideas, and then all of a sudden you can literally see them coming out of the ground,” Condon said.

For Spokane’s mayor, the boundaries of the park aren’t where the vision ends. Condon referenced the work of a combined stormwater tank and green space near City Hall, the already built Gathering Place plaza beneath the SkyRide gondolas, a proposed climbing space on city land just

DAN PELLE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Garco Construction Inc. has been awarded the contract to restore, redesign and rebuild the U.S. Pavilion in Riverfront Park. north of Spokane Falls and trails leading west and into Riverside State Park.

“To the end user, our vision is that you don’t really see the difference between those projects,” Condon said. “Really, it will just be this continuous thing, and

reach out into the community.”

Criticism of the redevelopment has focused on the early projects, including bridge replacements and the ice ribbon, which have cost more than projected.

Condon acknowledged

SPOKESMAN-REVIEW ARCHIVE

This May 1974 photo shows Riverfront Park when it was home to Expo ’74.

those concerns but said he believed the project is on the right track.

“Some would say that we had delays. I would suggest that they were well-intended, and now you will see the benefit of that, to make sure it’s being done the right way,” he said.

Work in the park proper is expected to be completed in December 2019, the final month of Condon’s second term as mayor. The city already has spent about 18.5 percent of the bond money for the project, with $12.2 million paid for park improvements as of May. An additional $16.6 million has been dedicated to certain projects, leaving $37 million – a little more than half of the pot – available moving forward.

After watching the Park Board debate whether to recover the pavilion, Evans, the chief designer of Expo ’74, encouraged those who now hold the park’s future in their hands not to forget

the importance of the Spokane River. Before it was a park, or an industrial rail yard, the islands served as fishing grounds for the Spokane Tribe of Indians, and the new design should pay reverence to that fact, Evans said.

“I very much like the idea

of connecting, any way possible, with the water,” he said. “That’s one of the things we got from the Spokane Indians, this reverence for the water.”

CONTACT THE WRITER:

(509) 459-5429 kiph@spokesman.com

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THE SPOKESM

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A city reborn, pr

Spokane has become a hub for young professionals, health sciences

By John Webster THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

The Spokane University District, with its burgeoning health science programs He began moving classes to downtown Spokane, winning a warm welcome. In Pullman, eyes popped open and a turf war began between the two universities as Frederickson expanded his beachhead and WSU looked for a few programs that might be suited to a branch in Spokane.

In the state Legislature, powerful Seattle lawmakers controlled higher education’s purse strings and preferred to keep dollars focused on the University of Washington.

But the Seattle advocates sensed an opportunity, as WSU pointed out

Kendall Yards development plan

branch campuses could meet the state’s growing enrollment demand from children of the baby boomer generation. Within a few years the UW was developing two branch campuses and WSU was at work on three, including Spokane’s, its first.

Still missing was a mission that made sense. Engineering, the first concept for Spokane’s campus, never got off the ground.

Lisa Brown, a key leader in the Legislature as the campus took shape and now the outgoing chancellor of WSU Spokane, remembers when the lightning struck: Health

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For decades a north bank railroad bridge carried trains to downtown switching yards. Today, the north bank is populated with homes, trendy shops, restaurants, a medical building, grocery store and the Centennial Trail.

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that Washington State University had been constructed in the wrong city.

It should have been built in Spokane, he said. It must correct this mistake, he said, by starting to relocate.

People gasped. Eyes rolled. But the idea stuck. Others took up the cause: business leaders, university presidents, legislators, governors.

At first, the response from WSU’s Pullman campus was chilly. But George Frederickson, president of Eastern Washington University, sensed an opportunity.

Stevens

mercial reinvestment including renovation of the Davenport Hotel, the Fox Theater and Steam Plant Square. River Park Square is owned by the Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

While those projects kept life in the city center’s traditional location, it was an audacious idea that caused the downtown’s footprint to grow.

Forty-four years ago Wendell Satre, the outgoing CEO of Washington Water Power Co., declared in his valedictory speech to the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce

Nettleton

Once upon a time there was a gritty little railroad town. Next to the switching yards where locomotives chuffed and cinders flew, its downtown had a nice department store where everybody shopped, and a famous hotel where everybody stayed. But in the 1960s a freeway bypassed the gritty little town, and out beyond its outskirts of bars and used-car lots some shiny suburban shopping malls appeared.

We’re new, they said to the gritty little town, and you’re old. The future is here and it will pass you by.

We will change, said the leaders of the gritty little town, rolling up their sleeves.

Fifty years later, nobody calls Spokane a gritty little town by a railroad switching yard.

Its city center thrives. Vitality is sending fingers of renewal even into long-troubled neighborhoods to the east and west where prostitutes walk the streets and drug dealers run houses into ruin. Two medical schools have appeared. The railroad yard is gone, and in its place is a park. The hotel, once closed, has been restored. The department store, once the downtown’s heart, is gone.

Extending outward from the core is an expanding explosion of investment: movie theaters, shops, restaurants, concert halls, shelters and clinics for the homeless, a trendy urban grocery store, wine tasting rooms and the racket of construction as old buildings are turned into high-end apartments for the professionals, empty nesters and students who want to make this vibrant downtown center their home.

It’s more than a place to shop, and it does not go dark at 6 p.m.

How did this happen?

In more than a few American cities, the decadeslong flight to suburbia left decay in its wake. And today, changes to the retail industry have turned against the nation’s oncethriving suburban malls, hollowing them out as consumers order directly from Amazon distribution warehouses.

But Spokane has been a different story.

Todd Mielke, who grew up in Spokane, now serves as CEO of Greater Spokane Incorporated. He remembers magical Christmas displays in the windows of the longgone Crescent department store, and he remembers when once-glittering attractions like the art deco Fox Theater fell into disrepair.

There is not a single explanation for Spokane’s path from decay to recovery, he said. “I don’t know if anybody can say we planned steps 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. But every major project built upon the previous. It was a series of catalyst projects.”

Expo ’74 turned the railroad yard into Riverfront Park. When retail fled for the suburbs in the 1980s and 1990s, the River Park Square project “stopped the bleeding” and brought consumers back, Mielke said, triggering a decade of com-

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roject by project

ences building appeared, the new mission took off. Today, three of WSU’s 11 colleges – nursing, pharmacy and medicine – are headquartered at the Spokane University District. Across the river, Gonzaga University’s booming campus is home to a new partnership with the UW School of Medicine.

This fall, WSU’s medical school enrolls its first class of 60 medical students and the UW-Gonzaga medical school aims for 80.

Brown predicts an unconventional campus, with students living not in traditional dormitories but rather in a spreading neighborhood of privately developed apartments and eateries. A pedestrian bridge will cross railroad tracks south of the campus, connecting it to a oncesketchy neighborhood that planners hope will house spinoff businesses in the biological sciences.

The footbridge also will carry bicycles and runners from the University District’s Centennial Trail up to the South Hill’s Ben Burr Trail.

Healthy growth, planners hope, will follow.

Just as downtown housing and vitality are expected to follow the University District’s students, so also have they begun to appear on the opposite side of downtown.

Kendall Yards, once home to a graffiti-covered railroad abutment and the weedy buffer between the Spokane River and the economically troubled West Central Neighborhood, has become the site of trendy new homes, restaurants and a soon-to-open grocery store. A few blocks east along the north bank of the falls, additional housing and commercial projects have just been announced.

Mielke said Spokane’s urban core has the potential to become a magnet for those who want an urban lifestyle. Recent surveys, he said, indicate that the 18- to 34-yearolds who have settled in urban Portland and Seattle are concluding they cannot long afford the high cost of housing there, or the transportation headaches. With a multifaceted urban center and lower housing prices, Spokane could beckon, Mielke predicts.

Spokane, however, should stop thinking of itself in relation to Seattle, Mielke said.

“Back in the time of the tribes, this was a gathering place. Let’s take this historic identity of a hub.

We’re the capital of the Inland Northwest. We are the big fish in this pond. We have to be really smart about our future.”

Years ago, when Mielke served in the Legislature, a powerful lawmaker from the heavily congested Puget Sound area agreed to fund state projects in Spokane because, she told him, “It’s not too late to save you guys.”

But Spokane has to anticipate what’s coming to the former site of those gritty railroad yards by the river, Mielke said.

“We’re half a million people now.

As we think about our future, we have to anticipate the attention, the growth, so we can maintain our quality of life.”

JESSE TINSLEY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

s, is reclaiming industrial areas and stretching the downtown area of Spokane. ing. Spokane’s community colleges granted degrees to numerous varieties of medical technicians. EWU trained nurses, dental hygienists, physical therapists ...

On the eastern edge of down-

town Spokane, on land once populated with weeds and abandoned warehouses, WSU and EWU built the beginnings of a campus.

When the WSU nursing school relocated there and a health sci-

McCarthy Athletic Center

The Arc of Spokane Holiday Inn Express

Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences

WSU College of Nursing

Spokane Falls Blvd.

WSU Bookie JensenByrd Building

Gonzaga University

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This sculpture overlooks the park at Kendall Yards on April 21.

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Site of future medical clinic

Planned Bicycle/ pedestrian bridge

A look at the University District

KATHY PLONKA/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

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Zola Main Borracho Market The UW Boots Globe Spokane Bakery Main Center Saranac Red Commons Lion BBQ Merlyn’s Magic Lantern

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Strollers walk down the Centennial Trail through Kendall Yards on Sept. 9, 2015. Parts of Kendall Yards were considered a “brownfield,” an area with a legacy of industrial pollution, before it was reclaimed and turned into an upscale community of apartments, condominiums, townhomes and some houses.

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their training. WSU also had a College of Pharmacy; moving it to Spokane, near those same hospitals, made sense. The UW long had placed medical students in Spokane hospitals for a portion of their train-

Sherman

sciences would become the mission.

For years Spokane had been home to WSU’s Intercollegiate School of Nursing. Its students needed the city’s large hospitals for

Second Third 90

MOLLY QUINN/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

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JUNE 25, 2017

HERITAGE WALKS

Heritage, from the ground up Walking tours offer history behind notable Spokane sites

By Mike Prager THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

JESSE TINSLEY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

The Spokane Flour Mill, center right, can be seen on the north bank of the Spokane River.

The mill was built circa 1895 or 1896.

Downtown Heritage Walks

Explore the history of downtown through the three heritage walks.

2 Flour Mill

13 Spokane County 1116 W. Broadway Ave.

Huntington Park

Riverfront Park

3

4

The he e Davenport

Monroe St.

R.R.

13

Sprague Ave.

14 Second Ave.

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Division St.

Browne St.

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Intermodal Center C

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t McClellan St.

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Stevens St. t..

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17 16 1 15 Madison St.

Jefferson St.

Adams St.

Cedar St. St. Cedar

4 5

The Fox Fo ox Theater

First Ave.

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Riverside Ave.

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Wall St.

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Performing Arts Center

Spokane Blvd.

S kane Falls F

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1116 W. Mallon

Courthouse

Spokane River Spokane River

the site of Expo ’74.

“The idea for a world’s fair in Spokane came in the late 1960s, when 17 acres of railroad land along the Spokane River was acquired as part of a plan to remove railroads from the riverfront and downtown area of the city,” the tour script says.

The central downtown tour proceeds to the Flour Mill before moving into downtown

cording to the tour description.

Notice the slight color variation on the lower part of the tower, which shows the outline of the demolished depot through nearly matching tan brick that was used as a patch.

Stop No. 2 directs you to a plaque on the small “salmon people” island that splits the Spokane Falls. The plaque commemorates Riverfront Park as

clock tower.

Participants can click on the site and get a brief description of the history.

“The clock tower is all that remains of the Great Northern train station which was demolished in the early 1970s in preparation for Expo ’74. The train depot itself was completed in 1902 and was considered the finest depot west of Chicago,” ac-

Howard St.

The history behind the elegant old buildings of downtown Spokane is easily available in the form of online walking tours.

About a decade ago, the Spokane City/County Historic Preservation Office created a series of three downtown walking tours.

They can be found at historicspokane.org/HeritageTours/ downtown/index.html.

The tours have proved popular with visitors to the city, especially downtown hotel guests, said Megan Duvall, historic preservation officer.

The downtown area is divided into three areas – west, east and central – with a combined total of 55 stops.

Each touris designed to be reachable on foot without becoming overwhelming, Duvall said.

Starting in central downtown, the first few stops are in Riverfront Park with stop No. 1 the historic Great Northern Railway

proper. The No. 18 stop is the Sherwood Building at 510 W. Riverside Ave. “Designed by architects (Kirtland) Cutter and (Karl) Malmgren and built in 1916-17, this Gothic design, reinforced-concrete building has extensive terra cotta detailing,” the tour says.

The east downtown tour has lots of lesser-known gems.

Stop No. 1 is the Ritz Theater, now Rocky Rococo’s pizza at 520 W. Main Ave. “This Italian Renaissancestyle building was opened in 1924 as the Ritz motion picture theater,” the tour says, urging people to notice the overhead balcony.

In the west downtown tour, possibly the most overlooked stop is the historic post office.

When it opened, it was a huge deal.

“Conforming to the classical style adopted by the federal government for all federal buildings, this building was constructed in 1908-09 and designed by Treasury staff architect James Knox Taylor,” according to the tour information.

In addition to the tours laid out by the historic preservation office, there is also historical building information on the Google field trip application for mobile and at Spokane Historical, an Eastern Washington University history project, at spokanehistorical.org/tours/browse/.

18 P Pa aacc Ave. Pacific e..

19

Some prominent buildings on the local and national historic registers 1 Monroe Street Bridge

10 Our Lady of

Lourdes Cathedral

Monroe Street

1023 W. Riverside Ave.

2

Lincoln statue Monroe St. and Main Ave. 904 W. Riverside Ave.

12 Carnegie Square

Great Western building 1023 W. Riverside Ave.

13 Spokane County Courthouse

15 Montvale Hotel

999 W. Riverside Ave.

1001 W. First Ave.

16

Monroe St. and Riverside Ave.

4 Old City Hall

(Under construction) Spokane Falls Blvd.

6 Coeur d’Alene Hotel/ The Milner

525 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.

17 Odd Fellows Hall

1015-1017 W. First Ave.

9 Chancery building

7

Bennet Block 206 N. Howard St.

8 The Crescent building

Whitten Block

520 W. Main Ave.

2 Bodie/1889 Building

1 S. Post St.

11 Miller Building (Hotel Lusso)

124 N. Stevens St.

3 Kemp and Hebert/

the Liberty (Auntie’s Bookstore)

806, 810 W. Sprague Ave.

12 Davenport Hotel 10 S. Post

221 N. Wall St.

Single room occupancy hotel 1001-1129 W. First Ave.

8 Monaghan statue

10

808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.

1007-1017 W. Sprague Ave.

926 W. Sprague Ave.

7 Review Building

(City Hall)

5 Looff Carrousel

14 Fox Theater

901 W. Sprague Ave.

6 Chronicle building

3 Montgomery Ward

1 Ritz Theater (Rocky Rococo’s)

722 W. Sprague Ave.

621 W. Mallon Ave.

1116 W. Broadway Ave.

5 Clemmer/State/

Bing Crosby Theater

2 Flour Mill

904 W. Riverside Ave.

4 Empire State/

9 Peyton Building

Riverfront Park

11 San Marco Apartments 1228 W. Sprague Ave.

3 U.S. Post Office

1 Clock Tower

13

Fire of 1889 plaque

404 W. Main Ave.

4 Realty Building/The Delaney 242 W. Riverside Ave.

5 Dessert Block/ Hotel St. Regis

Lincoln St. and Railroad Alley

14 Steam Plant Square

302 W. Riverside Ave.

6

815 W. Railroad Ave.

15 Symons Building 525 W. Sprague Ave.

305 and 307 W. Riverside Ave.

7

16 Sherwood Building 510 W. Riverside Ave.

707 W. Main Ave.

Sons of Norway Building

American Legion/ Metals Bank Building 108 N. Washington St.

8

Paulsen Buildings 407 and 417 W. Riverside Ave.

1115 W. Riverside

9 Old National BankBuilding

11 City Ramp Garage 429 W. Sprague Ave.

12 Fire Station No. 1 418 W. First Ave.

13 Columbia Building 107 S. Howard St.

14 Central Methodist Church 221 S. Howard St.

15 Hutton Building 9 S. Washington St.

16 Whitehead’s

Amusement Palace 333 W. Sprague Ave.

17 Northern Pacific Railroad Depot

221 W. First Ave.

18 Wetzel Warehouse 114 W. Pacific Ave.

19 Green-Hughes Printing Company Building 19 W. Pacific Ave.

422 W. Riverside Ave.

For more information on Spokane’s downtown heritage walks and interactive maps with descriptions of the various historic buildings go to:

http://www.historicspokane.org/HeritageTours

10 The Fernwell Building 505 W. Riverside Ave.

Source: historicspokane.org MOLLY QUINN/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

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JUNE 25, 2017

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NIGHTLIFE

Think outside the bar There’s lots to do downtown after dark

By Azaria Podplesky THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Anyone who’s spent time downtown after hours knows there’s always something going on. But if bars and nightclubs aren’t your thing, the area can seem unappealing, and maybe even uninviting. A closer look, though, will reveal a few out-of-the-box options for a night on the town.

For those who love to dance but aren’t big fans of nightclubs, Satori Dance Studio (122 S. Monroe St.) is the place to go to shake your tail feathers. Satori offers classes on the Cuban and L.A. styles of salsa; the Argentine tango; bachata, a style of dance from the Dominican Republic; and the Lindy hop, a type of swing dance.

To get even further immersed in each style of dance, dancers can take one of Satori’s free language classes. In these classes, dancers study the lyrics of a song in either French, Spanish or Portuguese, then learn its grammar and structure. They then take to the floor and dance to the songs they just studied.

Reservations aren’t required for open dance or private or group language classes, but dancers should call ahead to reserve a spot in Satori’s private or group dance classes. FYI, Satori doesn’t accept credit or debit cards, so be sure to bring cash or check along with your dancing shoes.

The Inland Northwest is chock-full of natural features that cater to rock climbers of all experience levels, but sometimes weather or travel restraints make it hard to climb outside. Enter Wild Walls (202 W. Second Ave.), Spokane’s first climbing gym, which is open until 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 7 p.m. Sunday, so climbers can get some training in no matter when they get off work.

Wild Walls offers climbers the opportunity to top rope (climbing with ropes) or boulder (climbing without ropes), and for those with no climbing experience, the

PHOTOS BY COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

People learn to paint a scenic on canvas while enjoying a glass of wine at Pinot’s Palette at 319 W. Sprague. gym offers a vertical introduction package (a women-only vertical introduction class is also available) and an introduction to lead climbing class for those interested in sport climbing. Rental equipment is available, and a membership includes access to Wild Walls’ yoga classes, half of which also cater to the after-work crowd (8-9 p.m.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays).

After a long day at work, a game night with friends can be a welcome reprieve.

Whether you’re new to gaming or have been playing for years, Uncle’s Games Puzzles and More (404 W. Main Ave.)

hosts tournaments and other ways to play seven days a week, with most weekday events happening 6-9 p.m.

No matter your game of choice, Uncle’s Games, a downtown staple since 1978, has got you covered. A glance at the store’s calendar shows events for Magic the Gathering, The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game, Pokemon, Star Wars Armada, Force of Will, Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Runewars and more. Prizes are up for grabs at just about every event, and nearly all events are, at most, $7 to attend.

Uncle’s Games also hosts board game Courtney Mwangi and Garrett Clemetson, in center, join other tango dancers at Satori Dance Studio at 122 N. Monroe St.

nights every Friday and special events like jigsaw exchange, where puzzle enthusiasts can trade a completed puzzle for one of Uncle’s Games’s opened puzzles, once a month.

If you just can’t imagine a night out without a drink of some sort, plan an evening at Pinot’s Palette (319 W. Sprague Ave.) or Paint & Pints (718 W. Riverside Ave.), as drinking while creating is an option at both studios. Both Pinot’s Palette and Paint & Pints post previews of each class’s paintings on their website so you can choose a piece of art you know you’ll love. Flowers, landscapes and animals are popular subjects in both studios.

Pinot’s Palette offers wine by the glass or bottle, as well as microbrews and nonalcoholic drinks. All of the studio’s wine and beer offerings are from either Washington or North Idaho. At Paint & Pints, painters can choose from beer – on tap or individual cans or bottles – and wine from near (Washington, Oregon and California) or far (Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Argentina), depending on availability. At the end of the night, your thirst will be quenched and you’ll have a new piece of art to bring home.

CONTACT THE WRITER:

(509) 459-5024 azariap@spokesman.com

THE HOME OF HARD WORK DOESN’T CLOSE DURING CONSTRUCTION

DESPITE THE DOWNTOWN AREA CONSTRUCTION, IT’S BUSINESS AS USUAL AT THE BENNETT BLOCK CARHARTT STORE. 530 W. Main Avenue, Spokane, WA 99201 • 509-598-7200

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THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

JUNE 25, 2017

FOOD

Dining diversifies with food culture Locally sourced meals inspire new choices

By Adriana Janovich THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

It’s an elegant space, done in gray, black and white, with exposed brick walls, high ceilings and an open kitchen.

There’s a new menu every month or so, and its focus is on creativity as well as whole, healthful foods. Experimentation is a value. So is working to elevate skills.

Many ingredients are locally sourced, and dishes – made from scratch – carry a theme.

“It’s food around story,” said chef Jeremy Hansen, creator of Inland Pacific Kitchen, which opened six months ago in the old Washington Cracker Co. building in downtown Spokane. Early menus offered all-white fare, as well as Japaneseinspired cuisine – all with striking presentation. Reservations are recommended.

Would Hansen have opened Inland Pacific Kitchen 10 years ago in downtown Spokane? “Probably not,” he said.

So much has changed during the past decade that Hansen felt, at the end of last year, the timing was right to take the risk.

“I feel like I can (succeed with IPK) because of the growth of the food culture of Spokane,” he said.

Throughout the last 10 years, dining in downtown Spokane has undergone a transformation, with the opening of more locally owned restaurants, particularly ones that focus on locally sourced ingredients. There are more options for diners who care where their food comes from.

And at the forefront of this movement is Hansen, who’s opened four eateries in the urban core in the past 10 years and has another downtown eatery on the way, slated to open in July. He has two more downtown establishments in the works that could open as early as the end of the year.

Hansen said he is effecting the change he wants to see in Spokane’s food culture and restaurant scene, starting with the opening of Sante Restaurant and Charcuterie in 2008.

“I think we were the only restaurant that opened that year” in downtown Spokane, Hansen said. “At that point, the food scene was pretty grim.”

It had been long overshadowed by the food-and-drink scene in the metropolitan centers of Seattle and Portland. Aspiring chefs from the Inland Northwest would leave the area, but these days, more chefs with regional roots are returning home.

Hansen, who cooked in Portland and New York City, is one of them. So is Chad White, who appeared on Bravo’s “Top Chef,” as well as David Blaine, Adam

TYLER TJOMSLAND/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Santé Restaurant and Charcuterie is part of a transformation in Spokane’s food culture and restaurant scene.

Hegsted and Tony Brown, among others.

Seeds of change in downtown Spokane’s dining scene were planted in the ’90s with the likes of Fugazzi, a local chain of restaurants and bakeries, and Mizuna, which opened in 1996 and specialized in gourmet vegetarian fare. Wild

Sage, which emphasizes comfortable elegance and local ingredients, opened 10 years later. Madeleine’s Cafe and Patisserie, a French-inspired coffee and bakeshop, opened in 2007, the same year the New York Times ran a story about Portland’s “Golden Age of Dining and Drinking.”

“Why can’t we be that?” Hegsted recalled thinking.

In the years that followed, a group of up-and-coming chefs, including Hegsted, met at Quillisascut Farm School in Rice, Washington, to discuss how Inland Northwest diners think about food. They wanted to encourage them to celebrate the connection between restaurants and area farms.

“We had to figure out why chefs felt like they had to move away from here,” Hegsted said.

“Part of it is identifying a regional identity – what we’re about,” Hegsted said. “Portland is ‘Keep it weird.’ ” Here, there’s “Spokane doesn’t suck.”

But implied in the words is the assumption that it does. “What is our brand?” wondered Hegsted, who felt encouraged to branch out. Back then, he was the executive chef at the Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort in Worley.

“I left my cushy job,” said Hegsted, who went on to start the Eat Good Group of restaurants, including Wandering TaSee DINING, 31

Spokane’s Original Soft Peanut Butter Brittle A one-of-a-kind 66 year old classic recipe.

Bruttles Gourmet Candies JESSE TINSLEY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Kelsey Mae Crane shops at the Main Market Co-op. The store, on the east end of downtown, specializes in local and sustainable – often organic – foods.

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Bruttles Spokane Valley 12609 E. Sprague | 509-228-9509

Wish list for downtown includes more grocery stores within walking distance

By Adriana Janovich THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Ella and Max Piskun live in a loft on the eastern edge of downtown Spokane.

One of the things that appealed to them about the city’s urban core was the chance to drive less and walk more – to shops and to restaurants.

They’d like to walk to grocery stores, too. But, because of price points and variety, they usually opt to shop for groceries at the Fred Meyer at South Thor Street.

“I feel Fred Meyer has a lot more options,” Ella Piskun said.

And, her husband said, “It has better deals.”

Plus, he said, “There’s nothing downtown.”

While there are some options for getting groceries downtown, many residents who live in the city’s core say they would like to see more within walking distance. And, with several hundred new housing units slated for completion in the next 12 to 18 months, “Demand will be growing,” said Mark Richard, president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, a nonprofit membership organization “dedicated enhancing the quality and vitality” of the city center.

Agreeing with the Piskuns’ sentiment, Richard added, “For a modern, urban dweller, part of the reason you move downtown is so you don’t have to use your car.”

So, there is, he noted, “a gap in our market.

“We have grocery opportunities downtown. But I think we’re definitely in need of one that’s more centrally located. I also think you can serve some districts in downtown with pocket grocery stores” akin to the ABC stores in Hawaii, neighborhood bodegas in New York City, Bi-Rite markets in San Francisco or mom-and-pop shops – “like the Rocket Market on the South Hill.”

Another missing piece, he said: a farmers market in the downtown core. The Wednesday Night Market in Kendall Yards is in its third year. And the Spokane Farmers Market sets up shop on Fifth Avenue between Division Street and Browne Avenue on Wednesdays and Saturdays. But Richard would like to see something more centrally located.

“I think we are ripe for it,” he said.

Chef Chad White agrees. He lives near his downtown ceviche restaurant, Zona Blanca, and said he, too, would like to see a farmers market right in the downtown core. Or, a Whole Foods. Maybe even a Target with groceries as well as household goods.

Both of those last two options were also recommended by Buxton, a Dallasbased customer analytics company which gathers transaction data to determine the purchasing habits and lifestyle trends for specific geographic areas. Earlier this year, the Downtown Spokane Partnership collaborated with other groups and Buxton to identify the 20 best retail matches for downtown.

Now that the nonprofit has that information, Richard said, it will be reaching out to companies “and inviting conversation and providing them with the data and research” – and inquiring about their interest in locating downtown.

But he’s also working with existing businesses. Richard has talked with the manager of the downtown Rite Aid about the possibility of carrying more fruit and vegetables.

Does downtown need more groceryshopping options? “Absolutely,” said White, who’s lived downtown for about a year and shops at Rosauers in the Browne’s Addition neighborhood because “it’s closest to me.”

“There are a dozen buildings that are sitting vacant,” White said. “Downtown should be congested. Every storefront should be open for business. We need more groceries. We need more restaurants. What are they putting at the bottom of Macy’s? If they put in a grocery store, that would be huge.”

The former downtown Macy’s building is transitioning into residential apartments with retail space on the first floor. The building is owned and being redeveloped by Centennial Properties, a subsidiary of the Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review. There’s no word yet on what retailer or retailers might move into the building.

My Fresh Basket, the new grocery store in the Kendall Yards development, just north of the Monroe Street Bridge, will expand options for downtown dwellers when it opens in a couple of weeks.

It joins a few other spots in the vicinity. Several mini marts sell mostly convenience or junk foods. The Rite Aid on North Howard Street sells canned and frozen foods along with household items. On West Third Avenue, a Grocery Outlet Bargain Market sells discounted grocery items.

Farther away, on the lower South Hill, Huckleberry’s Natural Market sells natural, organic and often local or regional foods and supplements. On the east end of downtown, there’s Main Market Co-op, which specializes in local See GROCERIES, 29

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TRANSFORMATION

DAN PELLE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

The M, formerly the Macy’s Building, is a mixed-used housing and retail development on Main Avenue and Howard Street. It is expected to be finished by winter, 2018.

9 big city center projects $800 million in public and private investments pouring into downtown area The improved housing market has made the tower viable again, Mick McDowell said.

He’s currently raising money for the project.

By Becky Kramer THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Spokane is in the midst of major transformations, with $800 million in public and private investments pouring into the city’s downtown and nearby neighborhoods.

New apartments, stores and offices are under construction. Some of the work involves rehabilitating historic Spokane buildings. Other projects are new construction.

Here are nine large projects proposed or underway in the city’s urban core, in no particular order.

1. Wonder Bread Building Cost: $12.5 million Projected completion: summer 2018 Proposed use: mixed use, with food market and office space A historic brick bakery north of the Spokane River will be transformed into office space, with an artisan food market on the first floor and a glassed-in roof plaza.

The bakery made Wonder Bread and Hostess products until 2000. It occupies almost an entire city block near Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.

“We hope it becomes an iconic landmark for the city and for the north side of the river,” said Pete Mounsey, one of the partners in Wonder LLC, in a recent interview.

Part of the bakery that burned in 1947 will be reconstructed with brick to match the original exterior.

The owners envision an artisan food market on the first floor. The third floor will contain outdoor patio space and the plaza.

2. 1400 Tower Cost: $32 million Projected completion: TBD Proposed use: residential A 14-story condo tower is planned for West Riverside Avenue overlooking the Peaceful Valley neighborhood.

Developer Mick McDowell and his wife, Shelley, first proposed the project more than a decade ago. But the tower faced opposition from neighbors who were concerned about its height. After several rounds with the city of Spokane, the tower was approved; however the project stalled during the recession.

3. WSU Jensen Byrd Building Status: Stay tuned.

Earlier plans for a $45 million renovation of a historic warehouse building on the WSU-Spokane campus were recently scrapped. WSU-Spokane officials said they will create a new master plan for the campus to evaluate needs associated with the Elson S. Floyd School of Medicine.

Chancellor Lisa Brown said the new plan will focus on creating more space for research, teaching space for medical students and other student amenities. She said there are no plans to demolish the 1908 building.

4. Riverfront Park Redevelopment Cost: $64 million-plus Projected completion: 2020 Riverfront Park is in the midst of a major overhaul that re-envisions the 100-acre park created for Expo ’74.

Some of the major projects include a new home for the historic Looff Carrousel; restoration of the Pavilion for event space; an “ice ribbon” for skaters that replaces the old rink; a new Skyride facility; and a nature-based playground and outdoor learning area.

The park’s rehab also includes better access for people with disabilities and cleanup of historic contamination at the site.

Voters approved a bond for the park’s redevelopment in 2014.

5. The M Cost: $65 million Projected completion: winter 2018 Use: mixed-use housing and retail The old Macy’s building, which has been renamed The M, is being converted into apartments, retail and office spaces. The renovation is being led by Centennial Properties, a subsidiary of Cowles Co., which publishes The Spokesman-Review.

Macy’s closed the historic downtown store in 2016 as part of a series of closures across the nation. Before it was Macy’s, the store was home to the Bon Marche for more than 50 years.

The building renovation will bring 105 apartment units with underground parking.

Retail tenants have not been announced for the space, but are anticipated to occupy the building before the end of the year.

The apartment units should be ready in 2018.

A new skywalk across Howard Street will connect The M to the Bennett Block. It will be built about 100 feet north of the current skywalk.

6. Ridpath Club Apartments and Condos Cost: $22 million Projected completion: 2019 Use: mixed-use housing and retail Developer Ron Wells is working to reopen the historic Ridpath Hotel with a mix of housing options, including affordable “micro-apartments” for downtown workers.

The 214-unit Ridpath project includes 179 apartments targeted to working-class professionals earning less than $30,000 per year. The smallest apartments will have 249 square feet of living space, which will rent for $453 per month.

Small studios to two-bedroom lofts are also part of the mix, along with penthouse condos and a restaurant.

The Ridpath has been closed since 2008.

Wells purchased the old hotel this spring with the financial backing of the city. The City Council voted to loan Wells $1.75 million from a discontinued federal program aimed at improving affordable housing.

7. University District Gateway Cost: $10.6 million Projected completion: spring 2018 Use: pedestrian and cyclist bridge The bridge over the BNSF Railway tracks features a 120-foot-tall central arch with cable stays to hold the bridge deck in place.

Work started this year, with the bridge’s completion expected by fall 2018.

Business and property owners in the East Sprague Avenue area are eager for the potential economic redevelopment that the bridge could spur.

A subsidiary of Avista Corp. announced conceptual plans this spring for a 140,000square-foot multiuse building called the

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Catalyst, which be built at the bridge’s south landing. Officials say more information will be available later this year.

8. Kendall Yards planned unit development Cost: $150 million-plus Projected completion: ongoing Use: mixed-use residential, commercial and office There’s plenty of construction underway at Kendall Yards, the planned unit development Jim Frank is developing on a 78-acre former industrial site north of the Spokane River.

New townhouses are for sale on the west end of the development. A grocery store called My Fresh Basket Marketplace is opening this summer. Two commercial buildings are under construction.

Frank’s company, Greenstone Corp., also has announced plans for a building at 1001 W. Summit Parkway. Underground parking would be topped by two buildings – a residential structure with about 120 apartments and a commercial structure with about 60,000-square feet of office space. Retail would be on the first floor.

Realistically, it will be at least 24 months before the new apartments are available for rent, Greenstone officials said.

9. The Falls Cost: $60 million Projected completion: unclear; construction could start as early as 2018 Use: mixed-use residential, commercial and office There’s a little bit of everything in developer Larry Stone’s plans for the old YWCA property on the Spokane River’s north bank.

The Falls project features two 13-story towers with 120 hotel rooms, 120 apartments, 18 condos and about 25,000 square feet each for office and retail space. That’s according to a preliminary description filed with the city of Spokane.

Parking would be underneath the building. A public pathway will allow pedestrian access along the bluff.

Construction could begin as early as next year, city officials said.

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JUNE 25, 2017

HOUSING

KATHY PLONKA/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Pam Novell talks about her experience of raising a family in a downtown condo, located in the former JC Penney building at 809 W. Main St.

Condo demand climbs Developers are building hundreds of new units after years of stop-and-start growth

By Becky Kramer THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

When Pam Novell and her husband, Kerry, sold their South Hill home and moved into a downtown condo, some of their friends thought they were a little crazy.

The couple’s two daughters were teenagers. Pam’s elderly father was living with the family. And the Novells had two pets – a cat and a dog.

The condo turned out to be a good fit for the family, which quickly settled into the two-story, 3,600-square-foot unit in the old JC Penney Building at 809 W. Main St. “We’ve always been a lot outside of the box,” said Novell, managing broker at Windermere Manito LLC. Kerry walked to his job at River Park Square. The couple’s daughters attended

Lewis and Clark High School. Pam’s father, who had Alzheimer’s and was prone to wandering, benefited from the building’s security.

The family gave up their half-acre lot, but downtown was their backyard. The condo’s spacious “great room” quickly become a gathering spot for family and friends. The Novells hosted Hoopfest parties, banquets for one of their daughter’s soccer teams and a homecoming dinner for 12 couples.

“I couldn’t have done that at our old house,” Pam said.

The Novells spent 10 years in the unit before selling it in January. With both of their daughters out of the house, the couple downsized to a smaller townhouse in Kendall Yards.

Their condo wasn’t on the market long.

A family with three young children

COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Realtor Pam Novell shows this Kendall Yards townhouse that is listed for $525,000.

University District Catalyst Project | An

bought it.

Spokane has lagged behind other West Coast cities in developing a vibrant downtown residential community. But after years of stops and starts, interest in downtown living has hit a growth spurt. Developers are building hundreds of new units to meet demand for housing in the city’s core.

Population: 7,000 & growing Spokane’s city center is already home to about 7,000 people, according to the Downtown Spokane Partnership. Downtown has about 525 condos and 3,200 apartment units, with another 522 residential units under construction or in the planning phase.

Job growth in Spokane’s University District could create demand for a few

See DEMAND, 15

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thousand more units in downtown and nearby neighborhoods though 2040, DSP studies indicate.

Adding residents to the city’s core helps ring-up sales for downtown retailers, restaurants and bars. It creates walk-to-work scenarios and also increases public safety, said Juliet Sinisterra, DSP’s economic development manager.

“There’s this whole notion of creating a vibrant 24-hour downtown, where you have people using the streets at all hours of the day,” she said. “Downtown moves beyond a place people frequent from 9 to 5.”

The majority of people who want to live downtown are either millennials or empty nesters, developers say. However famil-

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HOUSING

Downtown’s desirability draws mix of young, old

By Rachel Alexander THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

PHOTOS BY COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Realtor Pam Novell says Kendall Yards townhouses like these are rapidly appreciating in value.

DEMAND

This one-bedroom Morgan Lofts condo at 315 W. Riverside Avenue is 1,100 square feet and lists for $259,000.

Continued from 14 ies, such as the Novells, are part of the mix, too.

Housing reflects diverse population The housing units under construction reflect the diversity of downtown residents’ income levels. The renovation of the historic Ridpath Hotel is a good example.

Most of the Ridpath’s 206 units will be targeted to people earning less than $29,000 per year. The project includes about 100 micro-apartments – studios of about 250-square feet – that will rent for about $450 per month. Developer Ron Wells said the units will help meet demand for housing for downtown’s service workers.

The Ridpath’s penthouse condos represent the other of the spectrum. Since the condos were sold as unfinished shells, it’s hard to put a precise dollar value on them, but Wells estimates the build-out value at $500,000 to $1.2 million.

“The condos sold out in three days,” he said.

Demand for the apartments has been high, too, Wells said. More than 375 people have expressed an interest in renting one of the Ridpath’s apartments, though the list is a couple of years old, so some of the potential applicants may have moved on.

One of the Ridpath’s new tenants is moving here from Manhattan, Wells said. He’s renting a micro-unit – the same size apartment he had in New York.

Wells said he advertised the units ahead of construction, developing the waiting list to prove market demand for the units to lenders and underwriters.

Spokane was “slow to embrace new concepts of downtown living,” Wells said. But now, “I really think it’s showing signs of

COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

catching up.”

Two other large projects will add apartments to the downtown and nearby areas. Centennial Properties is remodeling the old Macy’s building downtown.

The building, which has been renamed “The M,” will have 105 apartments, plus retail and office space.

Centennial Properties is a subsidiary of Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

Another Cowles Co. subsidiary, 809 Lofts, developed the condos in the old J.C. Penney building.

The Kendall Yards neighborhood, across the Spokane River from downtown, has 182 apartment units and Greenstone Corp. plans to construct another 150 units over the next two years. Smaller units have the highest demand.

“They’re pretty attractive for young professionals and students,” said Joe Frank, Greenstone’s president, in a recent interview.

An elevator, sauna and private balcony Novell, the Realtor who lived downtown, sees a similar diversity in condo prices.

Recent condo listings in the downtown district include a small one-bedroom unit priced under $300,000. Her office also has the listing for a $1.6 mil-

lion condo at 1219 W. Riverside.

The three-story unit has 4,200-square feet, its own elevator and cherry wood and limestone floors on the main level. The condo’s outdoor terrace overlooks the Spokane River. The master bedroom suite contains a sauna, office and private balcony.

While that property has luxury finishes, Novell also hears from clients who want to live in an old industrial space, with exposed brickwork and beams.

She’s currently seeing a high demand for downtown condo units priced between $500,000 and $700,000.

Most downtown condo buyers want at least 2,200square feet of living space and two secure parking spaces, she said, which bumps up the price.

“Those are the properties that have waiting lists and bidding wars,” Novell said.

At Kendall Yards, townhouse properties with those amenities are rapidly appreciating in value, she said. Last year, units in a fourplex were listed for sale at prices under $400,000.

Now, similar units have asking prices of $525,000.

Novell sees recent apartment construction as a predictor of future condo demand.

“There is a lot of demand for downtown living,” she

said.

But not everyone is ready to immediately commit with a condo purchase, Novell said. People want to rent for a while to get a feel for what it’s like to live downtown.

“They’re doing a testdrive,” she said.

CONTACT THE WRITER:

(509)459-5466 beckyk@spokesman.com

Urban living often is portrayed as a young person’s game, but at 52, John Waite is a pretty typical downtown Spokane resident.

Waite, the owner of Merlyn’s and Auntie’s Bookshop, lives on the same block as his comic and games shop. He’s got a few bars, a grocery store and a movie theater within a few hundred feet.

“I think I drive like a thousand miles a year,” he said.

In fact, the median age for someone living in the downtown core – bounded

by Interstate 90 to the south, Division Street to the east, the Spokane River to the north and Maple Street to the west – is just over 50, according to 2015 Census estimates from the American Community Survey. For the entire city, it’s about 36.

Who else lives downtown? Twenty-somethings make up about 22 percent of residents, slightly higher than their proportion in the city. Nearly everyone rents their residence.

About 80 percent of households are not families, though that number includes non-married couples with no children. Only 13 percent of downtown residents are married.

Downtown residents are poorer, too: About 47 percent live below the poverty line, more than double the city’s rate of about 20 percent. The per capita income is just $19,036 compared to Spokane’s $24,662.

It’s an odd jumble of people at first glance, but one that starts to make sense with a deeper dive.

Downtown living is seen as desirable now, but about 10 or 15 years ago, that wasn’t the case, said Juliet Sinisterra, business development manager for the

Downtown Spokane Partnership.

Early downtown apartment buildings were lowincome housing projects catering toward seniors and people on fixed incomes, like the Cathedral Plaza apartments on West Sprague Avenue.

“We’ve had a lot of lowincome (housing) historically, but that’s really starting to shift,” she said.

Downtown also is home to the House of Charity, the county’s largest homeless shelter. Between that and low-income housing projects, it’s not surprising downtown residents earn less, on average, than their counterparts in other neighborhoods.

When the downtown boundaries are expanded to include Browne’s Addition, Kendall Yards or the west part of the University District, the age demographics look similar but the poverty rates go down.

Interest in downtown is growing, and Sinisterra said that’s brought two big groups downtown: young people and empty nesters.

“The Gen Xers are the hole right now,” she said.

Some of that is supply-related. Apartments tend to be one- or two-bedroom: perfect for couples or roommates, but not ideal for families with a few kids and a dog.

Waite has lived downtown for eight years and said he’s seen interest in downtown living pick up.

He plans to renovate part of one of the buildings he owns into apartments that would be midrange in price, about $800 for a large onebedroom, he said. Even though it’s just an idea for now, he gets questions about availability regularly, he said.

“I could rent them out tomorrow,” he said. “It’s just a matter of time.”

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OFFICE SPACE

PHOTOS BY DAN PELLE/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Armando Hurtado and Josh Hissong, managing partners at HDG Architecture, bought and renovated the old Carr’s Corner Bar at 230 S. Washington St.

Making old spaces new Renovating downtown buildings into offices a rising trend for professional service firms

By Becky Kramer THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

When HDG Architecture outgrew its rented quarters in downtown Spokane, business partners Josh Hissong and Armando Hurtado decided it was time to buy their own building.

“We think we got one of the last good deals downtown,” Hissong said.

The partners paid $235,000 for the old Carr’s Corner Bar building at 230 S. Washington St. last year. Before the purchase and renovation, “it was a scary corner to walk,” Hurtado said.

People frequently loitered outside the

bar, which was known for its heavy metal concerts. The building’s few windows were covered with heavy drapes. Two billboards were anchored to the roof.

The partners sunk more than $600,000 into the 105-year-old brick building, which now provides the kind of eclectic, downtown work space they envisioned.

“To us, it’s worth it to have the grit of downtown,” Hissong said. “We could have bought a building on the South Hill or Spokane Valley. ... But our co-workers are millennials in their 20s and 30s. They would rather work downtown.”

Young adults “aren’t going to move here from Seattle unless it’s cool,” Hurtado ad-

ded. Downtown has always had a large number of professional services firms, including architects and engineers, said Craig Soehren, a broker with Kiemle & Hagood Co. Over the past several years, more of those companies have been buying buildings and renovating them for offices. Affordable real estate is one of the trend’s drivers.

“You still have the option of going out and finding a building you can afford,” Soehren said.

For some companies, the purchases also reflect the opportunity to create office space that reflects their corporate image.

After renting for nearly two decades, DCI Engineers Inc. bought a building in downtown Spokane in 2014. Since many of the firm’s clients are developers rehabilitating older buildings, a downtown location was the company’s first and only choice, said Craig Crowley, managing partner of the Spokane office.

DCI Engineers purchased the old Evergreen Parking and Storage building at 707 W. Second Ave. “We were on the hunt for something unique,” Crowley said. “It’s not a building See OFFICES, 18

The interior of HDG Architecture features artificial grass on the wall.

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OFFICE SPACE

“To us, it’s worth it to have the grit of downtown. We could have bought a building on the South Hill or Spokane Valley. ... But our co-workers are millennials in their 20s and 30s. They would rather work downtown.”

Sam McCrady, studio manager at HGD Architecture, visits the kitchen area at the business.

Josh Hissong Partner in HDG Architecture

PHOTOS BY DAN PELLE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

HDG Architecture has created an open work space for its employees at the corner of Third Avenue and Washington Street in downtown Spokane.

OFFICES

Stable market for office space

Continued from 17 everyone could look at and think, ‘That would be a really great office.’

But then, “we’re structural and civil engineers,” he said.

DCI Engineers bought the 15,000square-foot former parking garage for $537,000. Transforming the space into offices cost another $1.5 million.

“There was no infrastructure – no power, no water, no sewer, no phone,” Crowley said. “It was brand new everything.”

Though the interior is new, DCI kept the brick facade of the 1920s John Doran building, which was designed as a Packard and Studebaker dealership. Exposed masonry is part of the building’s interior.

“We’re very proud of the space. It turned out so cool,” Crowley said. “I hope it motivates others to do it. If you have some imagination, there are a lot of buildings that could be purchased for office space.”

HDG Architecture moved into its new quarters in April.

Covering up exterior of Carr’s Corner Bar gave the building a clean, modern look.

The partners removed the billboards and painted a catchprahse on the outside wall: If not now when?

The firm’s 13 employees work in a large, open room with exposed beams and big windows. A mounted caribou head, purchased at a Coeur d’Alene antique shop, is

About 33,000 people work in downtown Spokane, according to the Downtown Spokane Partnership. Many of those employees spend their working hours in an office building.

Downtown Spokane has a relatively stable market for office space, says Craig Soehren, a broker with Kiemle & Hagood Co. The central business district has about 3 million square feet of office space in 69 buildings. Overall vacancy rates are about 16 percent. They’ve hovered in the 15 to 18 percent range since the end of the recession, he said.

“We’re not Seattle, where there are multimillions of square feet of downtown office space under construction,” Soehren said. “Seattle’s development is primarily driven by big employers like Amazon, and unfortunately, we don’t have an Amazon.”

But Spokane doesn’t have some of the challenges of Seattle’s fast-paced growth, either, he said.

The downtown has historically had a cluster of professional companies in fields such as law, finance, real estate and development.

Professional workers often tell Soehren they like the synergy of being downtown. They have easy access to other companies they do business with, and they can do errands on their lunch hour.

“A lot of companies like the amenities,” he said. “Like, I forgot to buy my wife a birthday gift, so I run over to Nordstorm and I’m saved.”

the office mascot.

“I think it’s awesome. It’s not your traditional cubicles,” said Henry Ho, HDG’s project designer. “I usually boast to my friends that it’s kind of like a Google-plex.”

The office has a loft and plans for a small nap room. A parking lot behind the building will be turned into an outdoor green

space for both work and relaxation.

Employees sometimes put in 12- to 14hour days, so the partners wanted comfortable areas for the staff to recharge, Hurtado said.

“We’ve never had to tell employees to work harder,” he said. “We want them to go take a walk or take a nap and come back and

finish cranking.”

Ho moved to Spokane from Houston in January. “Six months ago, I didn’t even know that Spokane existed,” the 26-yearold said.

During the interview process, Ho said he was drawn to HDG’s vibe, which he described as “unorthodox” and “down to earth.” It made him willing to take a risk on Spokane.

When Ho worked at a Houston architecture firm, he wore a dress shirt, slacks and leather shoes to work. HDG has a more casual dress code, and the open work space makes the office feel egalitarian.

“There’s a lot of young talent,” Ho said of the company. And, “Josh and Armando are good mentors,” he said.

The partners said they like the idea of investing in downtown’s future by giving a dilapidated structure a new life. Though with old buildings, there are always “layers of risk,” Hurtado said.

Some of the big ticket items in the renovation aren’t even visible. The new roof cost $50,000 and replacing the floor boards was a $15,000 expense.

HDG spent about $875,000 on its new office space, including the building’s purchase and the cost of remodeling.

“It still pencils out as a good return on investment,” Hurtado said.

CONTACT THE WRITER:

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BUSINESS

Dodson’s has weathered ups, downs for 130 years Jeweler on Riverside likely oldest business

By Chad Sokol THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

When George R. Dodson opened a jewelry store on Riverside Avenue in 1887, Spokane was remote and scarcely populated. But soon came statehood, customers and competition.

“When my great grandfather came to Spokane there were 7,500 people, and by 1910 there were over 120,000,” said John Penn Fix III, who now holds the reins of his great grandfather’s business, Dodson’s Jewelers at 516 W. Riverside.

Fix, who runs Dodson’s with his wife, Debra Schultz, regards the business as the oldest in town. At 130 years old, it has survived economic ups and downs, and a slow evolution of the downtown core – not to mention the Great Fire of 1889, which destroyed Dodson’s second location.

Much of the industry has moved online.

But Dodson’s remains profitable, and the owners have plenty of reasons for its success.

First and foremost, Schultz said, “Dodson’s is the brand.” The business is defined by its charm and traditions, she said, not by the products it sells. It’s a “destination store,” she said.

“If you go online ... they list all the brands they sell, and we’ve chosen to not go that direction,” Schultz said. “We have long-

KATHY PLONKA/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Dodson’s Jewelers owners Debra Schultz and John Penn Fix III say the downtown store has very loyal customers. standing relationships with some very, very fine designers and manufacturers, and we buy their product and we sell it as Dodson’s jewelry.”

But Fix said he couldn’t understate the importance of listening to customers, adjusting to modern sensibilities and investing in new technology.

“The reason why we remain in business is we have very loyal customers – but we don’t take them for granted,” Fix said.

For a handful of families, Dodson’s remains a tradition, she said. But others aren’t so familiar with the business, and only stop by to have rings fitted.

“Everybody is shopping online,” Schultz said. “Whether they buy online, or not, is another question.”

About half of the engagement rings that Dodson’s sells are custom-made, which is possible because of technology that allows rings to be designed on a computer, then

cast in sand molds in the building.

In the 1990s, Fix and his brother closed five branch stores. The goal, Fix said, was to bring Dodson’s back to its roots.

“We have held dearly to the significance of a downtown location,” he said. “The heart of any community is its downtown.”

Another change came after the owners realized the market had shrunk for fine china and other housewares.

“When young couples get married they register at maybe Pottery Barn, or they register at Target,” Schultz said.

So the couple transformed the store into a gallery featuring the work of local artists.

“Selling art was a big reset,” Shultz said.

“We love art, and there are a lot of artists in Spokane who are totally underrepresented. ... The number of new customers who have come in as a result of the art is significant.”

There still are challenges, like a lack of parking, Schultz said.

Dodson’s always has been on Riverside, but only at its current location since 1987.

“Riverside Avenue used to be the center of commerce in downtown Spokane. It certainly isn’t anymore,” Fix said.

Schultz said “a lot of people don’t like coming downtown because of what is perceived as a tough environment,” but she believes that perception is beginning to change.

“A lot of young people are choosing to come to Spokane,” she said. “They like the environment. The schools are good. You can still buy a house. It’s a nice place to live.”

WORKFORCE

Urban parking can be trouble, but jobs still draw thousands

By Pia Hallenberg THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Every morning, Amy McCoy commutes from her home in a quiet part of north Spokane to the downtown hair salon she opened three years ago with her husband Douglas.

House of Pop is located on West Riverside Avenue, between the core of downtown and the Saranac Building neighborhood. Across the street is the record store, bar and restaurant Garageland and lowincome senior housing. It’s a busy and diverse part of downtown with lots of traffic both on foot and by car.

Amy McCoy wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I love to be downtown with all the people and the traffic and the noise,” Amy McCoy said, “but I also love coming home to the quiet where we live.”

She’s not alone. Every day, thousands of people get in their cars, on their bikes and into STA buses and head downtown to work.

According to the Spokane Regional Transportation Council, 19,915 people work within the area of Monroe Street, Interstate 90, Division Street and the Spokane River, but only 76 also live in the area. That means almost 20,000 people commute downtown every day.

Expand the area outside the downtown core, and SRTC estimates the total number of commuters at more than 42,700.

Attorney Sara Maleki has commuted downtown for five years, and she said aside from the intense construction noise this summer – her office is right across the street from where crews are transforming the former Macy’s department store into The M – she likes being downtown.

She said she spends more money downtown on clothes and food than she would if she wasn’t already here.

“I do end up shopping here more,” Maleki said. “I probably wouldn’t do that if I wasn’t already parked here for work.”

If she’s going out after work, she said she rarely drives.

“If I’m already downtown, then I’m more likely to stay downtown afterhours,” Maleki said.

Like the McCoys, Jacqueline Porter also wanted to locate her business downtown. An attorney, she began looking for an office location about six years ago.

“When I started looking, I realized rent wasn’t crazy and I picked the first office I looked at,” Porter said. She’s been in the Paulsen Building ever since.

Porter said she loves the skywalk system, which makes it easy for her to walk to many of her clients’ offices.

“I can run errands and get to both my banks without going outside,” Porter said.

The downtown workforce is a captive audience for businesses. Once the car is parked for the day, downtown workers are unlikely to retrieve it unless they have to.

Bradley Warren, an intern in Sen. Patty Murray’s office, used to work from home in Colbert, but now he’s downtown. He

likes the variety of food and drink within a quick stroll.

“I drink coffee like a crazy person, so that’s very fun,” Warren wrote in a Facebook message. “And also the occasional slice of Rocky Rococo’s pizza is great.”

Warren said some of his friends think his working life downtown is just like the HBO show “Sex and the City,” which follows a group of glamorous professional women in Manhattan.

“It’s not like that,” Warren wrote. “People think that after you work you can run and get a drink and run to Nordstrom on your lunch, but I never have time for that.”

Warren said he expected “stress, parking problems and lots of traffic” when he found out his next gig was downtown.

And parking has been a bit of an issue.

Warren moves his car between a pay-bythe-hour garage and street parking.

“It’s difficult to deal with and just not available,” Warren said. “It’s a lot of work.”

The Downtown Spokane Partnership estimates there are 12,658 parking spaces downtown, almost 5,000 of which are in garages and 2,277 are at parking meters.

Commercial lots and garages have a variety of prices and plans. Some lots have “lunch specials” featuring cheap parking in the middle of the day. Others charge the same 24-7. A spot in the River Park Square parking garage is $175 a month. The Parkade charges $135. Across the river, a parking spot and bus pass to the shuttle that runs downtown costs $35 a month Maleki said some of her clients are hesitant to come downtown because of parking, and taking the bus is not an option for everyone.

Her employer pays a parking stipend every month, but it may not be enough.

“And not all lots will give you a comeand-go pass,” Maleki said.

Porter said finding affordable parking is toughest on employees.

“I’ve lost employees, because it’s not worth it for them to drive down here,” Porter said. “It’s a hard transition to take the bus. It doesn’t work for everyone.”

House of Pops’ Amy McCoy said parking can be a challenge for some clients.

Finding an affordable parking solution that works is just part of working downtown. Douglas McCoy said he travels a lot, and compared to other cities, Spokane’s downtown has a lot going for it.

“Downtown is the hub, it’s the lifeblood of the city,” Douglas McCoy said.

Amy McCoy said she worries some of the smaller businesses at the edge of the downtown core are struggling. She said she prefers the local restaurants and shops where a visit is more of an experience, over corporate chains.

“Like at Atticus or Boots Bakery. They are a little different and very successful,” Amy McCoy said.

Amy McCoy said she hopes the city continues to update the streetscape in her neighborhood.

“But we are here no matter what,” Amy McCoy said. “Our success is not connected to what the street looks like.”

Amy and Douglas McCoy inside their downtown hair salon, House of Pop, with nearby buildings reflected in their storefront window. The couple commute from their north Spokane home to their salon.

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THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

JUNE 25, 2017

PUBLIC ART

KATHY PLONKA/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

This painting by Melissa Cole on the side of the building at 124 S. Wall is just one of many murals between First and Second avenues.

Public art tough to miss Community-minded art scene alive and well downtown, with much to see in every medium

By Azaria Podplesky THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

When walking on Howard Street between First and Second avenues, a pair of smiling narwhals are there to greet you.

Walking on Wall Street, also between First and Second avenues, dozens of small murals mark “The People’s Gallery,” before red, blue, pink, black and white stripes make a colorful statement, via a mural by Spokane Arts Program Manager Ellen Picken and Erin Mielcarek.

On Post Street, a quartet of black-andwhite paintings by Justin Gibbens and Will Bow, including one of a “Pacific Merman,” a fish with human legs, decorate the underpass.

And the Steam Plant’s signature twin stacks tower fittingly over David Gove-

dare’s “Steam Plant Comet Show” on Lincoln Street.

A colorful mural by a team of artists led

by Melissa Cole brightens the other side of the street. Another Cole mural decorates the Monroe Street underpass.

“Melissa’s murals are so bright and colorful; encountering them feels like being transported,” Melissa Huggins, executive director of Spokane Arts, said in an email.

In Riverfront Park, Harold Balazs’ “The Lantern,” one of a handful of statues along the Centennial Trail and one of Huggins’favorite pieces of downtown art, reaches toward the sky.

It’s almost impossible to miss the artwork downtown, but with so much to see, it’s also difficult to take it all in.

If you don’t look up, you might miss the re-creations of paintings by Rick Gendron

on the side of Hotel Ruby.

If you don’t look down, you might miss the Govedare-designed music-themed bench near the Knitting Factory.

If you don’t look around while stopped at a red light, you might miss the signal boxes that have been wrapped with a design.

And some works, like Sherman Alexie’s poem “That Place Where Ghosts of Salmon Jump,” another of Huggins’ favorites, are in storage due to construction, awaiting the day they can be put back on display.

For some reason, certain pieces of downtown art aren’t regarded as such.

“If you’re hosting visitors who’ve never been to Spokane, you might say ‘Let’s go see the Red Wagon and the Garbage Goat and the Bloomsday Runners,’ as opposed to ‘Let’s go on a walking tour of downtown art,’ ” Huggins said. “They’re so iconic and uniquely Spokane that sometimes people can take them for granted.”

To help keep that from happening, Spokane Arts partners with various organizations, including the Downtown Spokane

Partnership, the city of Spokane, Visit Spokane and the Spokane Public Facilities District, on projects around downtown.

“Projects that benefit the community and help make our city vibrant, walkable and welcoming,” Huggins said.

One project, for example, found Spokane Arts working with the Downtown Spokane Partnership on a series of art installations in the skywalks that pay tribute to Spokane staples like the Lilac Festival, Spokane Pride and the Get Lit! Festival.

Spokane Arts also is working with the city on projects to incorporate art into the gathering spaces created by ongoing construction to make them feel welcoming and cohesive.

“Art can truly be transformative for physical spaces,” Huggins said. “And it gives people a real sense of community pride.”

CONTACT THE WRITER:

(509) 459-5024 azariap@spokesman.com

KATHY PLONKA/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

The smiling narwhals greet pedestrians at the Howard Street underpass.

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THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

JUNE 25, 2017

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SPECIAL 21

CRUISIN’

Oh, the places we cruised Downtown still needs honking and hollering

GA L LO N S o f WAT E R H E AT E D AND CLEANSED EVERY HOUR

Downtown Spokane is in the vise grips of a serious hipsterfication, and the neon signs are everywhere.

Formerly frumpy flophouses are being transformed into enticing hotels and apartments. Neighborhoods once known for their vigorous crack trade are now home to posh whiskey dens, event centers and foodie destinations.

Words like “condos” and “lofts” are rolling off tongues again.

DOUG Riverfront Park CLARK is undergoing a costly yet important mayoral legacy makeover.

Trust me. In a few years, my hometown will look so chic that the tourists will hardly Staff columnist pay notice to all the potholes.

As far as I can tell, there’s only one thing missing from downtown nirvana. We need to bring back that once-grand tradition of kids cruising Riverside.

Or “tooling” Riverside.

Or “dragging the gut.”

The decade of your prime acne coverup years usually will determine what you called the phenomenon of motoring bumper-to-bumper through the downtown business core on Friday and Saturday nights.

Cruising was a true spectacle. Like beer pong, it’s one of the few sports where you can be both spectator (parked and sitting on the hood of your car) and active par-

JASON MILLSTEIN/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Matt Johnson, 22, and Nicci Springer, 17, share an embrace outside the Muffler Mart on Division Street, while Katie Anderson, 17, changes the CD back in 2005. Cruising and hanging out on Riverside or Division has become a thing of the past, but old-timer Doug Clark thinks a cruising revival in this age of social media would produce hilarious moments. ticipant at the same time.

Why bring back cruising?

It would create the appearance of a vibrant honking and hollering Spokane nightlife, something the downtown only sees during the Lilac Parade, Hoopfest and the occasional food riot.

Cruising, alas, pretty much petered out, thanks to a number of social pressures, as in: ticket-happy cops, draconian no-parking laws, City Council fist shaking, eversoaring gas prices, concerns about carbon monoxide poisoning, video rentals and automobiles that kept coming out looking dorkier and dorkier.

In my day, nobody would’ve wanted to be caught dead in a Prius, let alone go cruising in one.

Ah, but what a blast while it lasted.

This was not a practice exclusive to Spokane, of course. Kids cruised in virtually every American city.

Hell, George Lucas made a hit movie about it with Harrison Ford four years before “Star Wars.”

Not having my own set of wheels meant that I had to rely on the kindness of cruisers like my friend Bill, who had a red Chevelle that went like holy hell.

Gary, another pal, drove an old Packard

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that ran slower than a Heinz ketchup pour. On the plus side, the beast could haul the entire Duggar clan with room to lease.

Once in a while, my old man would loan me the keys to the family’s ’65 Dodge Dart, which proved a reliable though lackluster cruise-mobile.

I dreamed of owning a GTO or Dodge Charger or maybe even a Camaro to slog up and down Riverside from about 8 p.m. until 2 a.m.

The route was a long, circuitous loop that involved some side streets as long as they led you back onto Riverside.

And round and round we went.

Some kids dared cruise Division, too, but I was never so adventurous.

Cruising was our pre-computer version of Facebook. Actually, it was more like a Face-to-Facebook, which involved rolling down a window to tweet at a hot girl or some dude you recognized from school.

I spent an evening with the downtown cruisers for a 1985 Progress Edition story that was published in The SpokesmanReview.

I remember meeting three Ferris kids that night: Eric, Rene and Pam, this cute cheerleader type, who claimed that cruis-

ing was a great way to meet guys.

Right on cue, a fool in a jacked-up green Ford pickup with mammoth tires rolled up, leaned out his window and hollered: “Yo, baaaabe! Come on and jump in mah truck!”

Pam ignored the overture and kept on yakking as if hillbilly truckster wasn’t even there.

“It’s fun to show off your car and meet people,” she told me.

Yeah. Like she needed any help meeting people.

I’m a realist, of course. I realize the golden age of cruising or tooling is deader than the leisure suit.

Cruising wouldn’t be the same if we brought it back, but that’s OK. I think cruising in this age of social media could be pretty darned hilarious.

Think about it.

Millennial cruisers would take an Uber ride to go one way down Riverside. Then they would get out and call for a Lyft for the ride back.

During the trips, they’d sit in the back seats, posting photos on Instagram and texting all of their friends about what a wild and crazy time they were having.

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THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

JUNE 25, 2017

ROOFTOPS

PHOTOS BY JESSE TINSLEY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

The upper roof of the Saranac Building on West Main Avenue is a living roof covered with a layer of soil and ground-cover plants nourished by stored rain water.

Five best rooftop spaces ment from gremlins getting in there. And it may have worked. To this day, there’s never been a missed edition, I don’t think.”

Crowning touches include gardens, gargoyles, hoops court

The Banner Bank Building

By Jonathan Glover THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

It’s easy to see why property developers are taking an interest in shaping the way people see downtown Spokane’s skyline.

Not necessarily by one-upping each other with taller spires of concrete, but instead by offering tenants, residents and the public a view that can only be found at the highest point: the rooftop.

“People like going up there and being exposed to the sun,” said Doug Yost, director of real estate investments at Centennial Properties, a subsidiary of the Cowles Co., which also publishes The Spokesman-Review. “With the millennial crowd, younger crowd, you need a place for people to meet that also has things to do.”

It’s no wonder then that as hundreds of millions of dollars of investment pours into downtown and neighboring areas, one of the check-boxes on some people’s lists is increasingly becoming rooftop access.

“If you look at urban buildings in any major area, you’ll tend to see rooftop decks as a favored amenity,” said Jim Frank, CEO of Greenstone Corp., which has the largest foothold in developing the up-and-coming Kendall Yards neighborhood. “They just cover a wide range of uses.”

Here’s a look at a few of the rooftops peppering downtown Spokane, some popular, some unknown.

The Saranac Building The Saranac Building on Main Avenue could easily boast itself as Spokane’s “greenest building.”Certified with the highest ranking by the U.S. Green Building Council, it has a rooftop garden and large solar panel arrays.

The building looks like it belongs in the heart of Seattle. But it’s in one of Spokane’s blossoming food and bar corridors, and its rooftop matches the style. The building, which shares spaces with the Community Building, has multiple rooftop spaces available for tenants, featuring tables, chairs and even barbecues.

“Put some dogs on the grill,” shouted Warrin Bazile, the building’s operations manager, while grilling for a potluck on June 12. “The grill master is here.”

Bazile, along with about a dozen other of-

The Banner Bank building rooftop basketball court is fenced, lighted and equipped with a complete sound system for use by the building’s tenants. ficer workers, stole an afternoon to enjoy the sun and fresh air from the building’s second-floor patio area. It’s not open to the public, but Austen White, the “maintenance dude” for the building, said people can rent it if they want to.

White takes great pride in the work he puts into maintaining several square yards of garden space blanketing the multitiered rooftop. All of the rain that falls is captured in the basement, where it’s reused to water the plants in the drier months.

“None of this is city water,” he said. “We capture all of it.”

While looking out from the fifth floor, White hypothesized “green” roofs might one day become standard in Spokane.

“You can see the potential,” he said. “All of those low-rise buildings would be perfect for these systems.”

The Highline Loft Apartments at Kendall Yards While looking out at the view of downtown Spokane from high above the Centennial Trail in Kendall Yards, property manager Heather Teston remarks how beautiful the skyline is from this angle.

“You don’t get this from the freeway,” she said.

Which is why she pressured her bosses at Greenstone Homes to add a space at the Highline Loft Apartments usable for all 182 of Greenstone’s apartments in the area.

The rooftop space, which also can be rented by the general public, has tables for eating, and chaise lounge chairs for relaxing.

There’s also a barbecue and even a bathroom so people don’t have to leave.

Teston said since the building was built

about four years ago the rooftop space has slowly gained in popularity.

“We’ve had a couple of weddings up here,” she said. “People will come up here for Fourth of July. Everything.”

She said she hopes in the future they can add other amenities, such as a projector or TV screen for football season, or possibly a fire pit in the winter.

“The only bummer is we only have stairs leading up to it,” she said. “But people will bring drinks and stuff and just chill out all day.”

The Chronicle Building “What’s up with the gargoyles?” is a question Yost, the director of real estate investments at Centennial Properties, hears often about the rooftop space on top of the Chronicle Building.

When the Chronicle Building converted from office to residential space last year, Yost said the drainage pipes below were failing. So as they were replacing plumbing in the floors below, they decided to update the entire deck.

“We’re trying to clean it up, make it more user friendly,” he said.

The rooftop, which is available for all office workers in the Spokesman-Review Tower, will also be available to Chronicle residents and will feature all of the amenities residents could expect: tables, chairs and barbecues. He said he’d like to see residents using the space whenever possible, especially to meet new people.

As for the story behind the gargoyles?

“That’s a good question,” he said. “My understanding is the gargoyles were put there to protect the paper-printing equip-

Of all the downtown rooftops visible from Google Maps, the Banner Bank Building is perhaps the most noticeable. Not because it’s covered in plants, wood structures, or has paintings of giant spiders on it: because it has a fully-functional basketball court.

“It gets used a lot,” said Alicia Barbieri, vice president of Goodale and Barbieri, which manages the property.

The court is comprised of hundreds of rubber interlocking tiles laid on top of a thick shock-absorbing mat, so when a game is going on up above, those toiling away at work won’t hear the thuds. And it’s available for any of the tenants staying in the office space at 111 N. Post St. It’s the brainchild of SRM Development, the company that oversaw the building’s remodel in 2008, Barbieri said.

“They just wanted a sport court,” she said. “They thought it was a unique feature.”

Barbieri said it’s not uncommon to see heated games of 1-on-1 and 3-on-3 going on after work. If they last until nightfall, there are spotlights set up around the high fencing, and even a sound system with large speakers wired throughout.

The Paulsen Center’s penthouse The view from atop the Paulsen Center is almost too good to just be office space. In fact, for more than a year, it sat empty as property managers fielded request after request to live there – not work there.

“Probably 90 percent of the calls we get are people who want to rent it as a residence,” said Scarlett Stalter, assistant property manager of the Paulsen Center, in a Spokesman-Review story from December 2015.

But today, it’s occupied by Bozzi Media, the publishers of Spokane-Coeur d’Alene Living and Catalyst magazines, which moved in February 2016. Before that it was leased by Estate Strategies, which moved to the ninth floor while the building’s elevators were replaced.

And before that, it was home to Helen Paulsen, the daughter of Myrtle Paulsen, widow to mining magnate August Paulsen.

Helen Paulsen moved there in 1957 and occupied the space until 2007, when she died.

“It’s neat because there’s still not many changes to it,” Stalter said. “The bathroom still has original fixtures. It’s pretty cool.”

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THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

JUNE 25, 2017

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SPECIAL 23

CRIME

DAN PELLE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Spokane Police Sgt. Jason Hartman, left and officers Brandon Roy, Ben Maplethorpe and Daryl Groom take a person into custody on trespassing and disorderly conduct charges.

City’s core a unique challenge Downtown precinct, special bar patrols, increased focus all help police reduce crime

By Nina Culver THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Decades ago crime used to be such a problem in downtown Spokane that even new officers patrolling the beat have heard the horror stories. But a downtown precinct, special bar patrols and an increased emphasis on the downtown area have curbed some of the bad behavior.

Spokane police Lt. Steve Braun said police don’t see as many major felony crimes downtown. ““It’s more nuisance-type stuff,” he said.

Robberies and burglaries are fairly uncommon downtown, but there have been issues with transients. The No. 1 issue is vehicle prowling. “Some of those happen at 1 o’clock in the afternoon,” Braun said.

There are up to five officers on patrol at once in the downtown area, which stretch-

es from Interstate 90 to Riverfront Park and from the University District to Browne’s Addition, Braun said. There are an additional two to four officers on duty for bar patrol on Friday and Saturday nights.

“Their presence downtown helps a lot,” Braun said.

The bar patrol ended earlier this year due to budget issues, but that didn’t last long. Within a couple of months there was an increase in assaults and fights and the bar owners asked to have the extra patrols back, Braun said.

Before 2013 there were no officers assigned downtown, said Sgt. Kurtis Reece. It was simply the dividing line between the north and south patrol areas and didn’t get much attention. “It really left downtown wide open,” he said.

It was reminiscent of the days of “the

block,” which referred to the 1100 block of West First Avenue. It was a concentrated location for shootings, stabbings, drug dealing and prostitution about 20 years ago. “It was just out of control,” Reece said.

In the late ’90s the Police Department created “David Sector,” which encompassed a slightly larger area than today’s downtown patrol borders. Police cracked down on crime and focused on cleaning up the area. It worked, but the effort was a victim of its own success. David Sector was disbanded and downtown was once again left without a focused police effort.

In 2013 there began to be more issues downtown, including assaults by groups of teenagers. “It created a very negative and unsafe environment,” Reece said.

That’s when a downtown police precinct was created and officers were assigned specifically to patrol downtown, Reece said. Now the area is revitalized and more major retailers are moving in. “It’s absolutely better than it used to be,” he said.

But Reece sees problems on the horizon.

Several new apartment projects are being built or have just been completed downtown. A larger resident population means more opportunity for crime, he said.

“That’s going to require more police officers and services downtown,” he said.

“Even putting more officers downtown isn’t enough to cover every street corner every day.”

Patrolling downtown is different from other parts of town, Reece said. “You’re in such a concentrated area, you can get there quicker,” he said.

That means that officers can usually spend more time on calls and focus on dealing with the underlying problems, Reece said. If the problems aren’t dealt with, they’ll just crop up again the next day or the next week.

“Downtown really has to be communitypolicing-based,” he said. “The officers who work downtown usually know everybody.

They may arrest them, but the next day they’re laughing and talking with them. It creates that accountability on both sides.”

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THE SPOKESM

WISH LIST FOR

How could you make downtown even better?

See VESTAL, 31

Lincoln

Mallon

Li on pa

Monroe

Broadway

A zip line Spokane River

Summit

Cat cafe Main

First

Wall

Post

side River

Refurbished train cars

Third

Contemporary art museum

Madison

Jefferson

In recent years, there’s been a lot of deservedly happy talk about what’s been added downtown.

From Huntington Park to the Grand Hotel, from West Main to East Sprague, Spokane’s core has been in a period of growth and revitalization, with new construction, businesses and infrastructure improvements everywhere.

But what’s missing? What does downtown Spokane still need to become great? A museum? A ballpark? Another Macklemore viSHAWN deo?

VESTAL I asked a variety of local people with a stake in downtown life what they thought, and here’s a wish list based on their responses: Add a stadium Mayor David Condon: “Spokane is the Staff columnist region’s downtown with great shopping, dining and entertainment. The community has overwhelming supported activities hosted in and around downtown, and the city would benefit from another outdoor regional event venue, such as a stadium, to complement the indoor spaces that straddle both sides of Riverfront Park.”

Switch to two-way streets John Waite, owner of Auntie’s Bookstore and Merylyn’s Comics and Games: “I think we have shown that a slower and more pedestrian friendly Main Street will be good for business and good for the community. It just needs someone at City Hall to push this plan. I think we are close to being able to show that they are great for business, both big and small.”

Fill in the gaps Kris Dinnison, co-owner of Atticus and Boo Radley’s: “I’d like to see downtown continue to become more pedestrian- and bike-friendly. For me that would mean more street-level businesses, more public art, landscaping, and other things that enhance the pedestrian experience around the downtown core. It would also mean fewer stretches of surface parking lots that chop up the different sections of downtown, making it less interesting and hospitable to walkers. For instance, when I send people from Atticus down to West Main, I have to tell them once they’re past Auntie’s there are basically two long city blocks of parking lots and not much else before they hit the cool block. That’s a deterrent to walking there. We need to create reasons to walk those two blocks.”

Zip across the river Mark Richard, president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership: “With all of the incredible amenities being added to Riverfront Park, what is lacking in the plan at the moment is something for the adventurer in all of us – something that provides a good, old-fashioned shot of adrenalin. By marrying up our spectacular river with an urban zip line course in or near the park, Downtown Spokane would become ‘the place’ for locals all ages as well as visitors from around the Northwest.”

Celebrate rail history Ryan Oelrich, chairman of the Spokane Homeless Coalition and founder of Spokane Sidewalk Games: “Downtown Spokane was built on a train yard and has trains running through it. With the exception of Frank’s Diner, we don’t celebrate the role trains have played in shaping our fine city or tie them into our Spokane narrative. Let’s place refurbished train cars in downtown to serve as attractions, event space, and education pieces to help tell our Spokane story. … I’d love to start a historical ‘tour train’ that would transport visitors around downtown to historical points of interest and to some of our most unique shops and eateries.”

Refine the skywalks Anthony Gill, who writes the urban planning blog Spokane Rising: “I think we desperately need a Skywalk and Pedestrian Master Plan for Downtown Spokane. Many of our downtown buildings were built with skywalks and second-floor retail in mind, but as street-level activity becomes more important and shopping patterns shift, we need to be proactive and strategic about our planning for these tools. I’m not saying we need to go and rip out all of the skywalks. But we should develop a long-term vision for what the skywalk system – or the whole downtown pedestrian system – should look like.”

A downtown department store This was John Waite’s suggestion, along with several people who responded to a post on Facebook. Here is Waite’s reasoning: “An Urban Target or some sort of larger shopping opportunity would be nice. I’ve been to the Urban Targets in Seattle and Portland and they are really useful. I love that they have needed household goods while being situated in the urban core.”

Develop a theme Bob Hemphill, owner of Chikn-N-Mo, said that a more unified approach to attracting people downtown is needed, including a design theme such as Coeur d’Alene has. “We don’t have a theme. … You need to invite people downtown to keep the city growing, to keep the city alive. You’ve got to make it absolutely crazy inviting.”

A people-centered plan Ginger Ewing, arts impresario and cofounder of Terrain: “Downtown Spokane has a lot of momentum right now. Great local restaurants, a growing cultural scene, investment in parks, increased efforts around affordable housing, large-scale events, transit, etc.

There are a lot of organizations doing really impactful things, but these efforts lack a collaborative, shared vision with concrete ac-

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SOURCE: City of Spokane

River offers fun, beauty Few city centers can claim a natural asset with fishing, paddling, trails, views

By Rich Landers THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

The Spokane River provides a steady flow of distinction to downtown Spokane, and a healthy splash of fun.

Few cities can claim a natural asset that puts the business district in touch with fishing, biking and paddling as well as hiking within face-washing distance of a thundering waterfall.

ROW Adventures has a downtown office with a shuttle bus that delivers guests within minutes to the T.J. Meenach Bridge and the start of a rapidsplashing rafting trip.

“Whitewater within the city limits!” marvels ROW owner Peter Grubb. “We have operations around the world and I can tell you that what the Spokane River offers through town is very rare.”

“The river brings a vibrancy and energy to the community that otherwise wouldn’t be there.”

ROW takes advantage of whitewater rapids below downtown and flatwater upstream including paddling trips that conclude with craft beer tasting at NoLi Brewery.

While native redband trout lure anglers to fly fishing in Spokane Valley and downstream from the falls, Avista stocks about 6,000 catchable-size rainbow trout in late June to provide an urban fishery from Riverfront Park upstream to Upriver Dam. Downtown anglers have been known to fulfill their wildest dreams. Joe Buster, a Spokane teenager at the time, was fishing for trout in the flatwater pool across from the Carousel on Aug. 13, 2011, when he hooked a 42 inch-long northern pike that apparently had drifted downstream from Idaho.

Buster landed the whopper with the help of cheering lookers. A friend transported the fish on his bicycle three miles to Buster’s home.

A river is valuable to any city, but a river that invites recreation takes on ambassador status. On June 12, half of the Visit Spokane staff donned lifejackets and launched with an outfitter to raft a stretch of Spokane’s namesake stream.

“We talk about the river a lot to our customers so we want our employees to experience it and know what they’re talking about,” said Cheryl Kilday, Visit Spokane president.

She said Visit Spokane research indicates the river and waterfalls are the No. 1 attraction to travelers visiting the city.

RICH LANDERS/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Megan Roland holds her paddle in a picture-perfect stationary cross-bow draw in as her husband provides the power from the stern to lead the field around a buoy in the citizens division of the Spokane River Classic in Spokane in 2014.

Riverfront Park is a recreation center in itself. Runners can plan leisurely-tovigorous lunchtime workouts on paved paths with the river as a constant companion, and without the hassle of crossing a road.

Fun Unlimited will add sit-on-top kayaks to its rental fleet of stand-up paddleboards available this summer from a concession tucked away under the Division Street Bridge.

Based on the Spokane River at Post Falls, the company opened the second location in downtown Spokane last year, renting boards to paddlers and leading SUP yoga classes on the water.

Owner Cara Quien said this year’s prolonged spring runoff has delayed Fun Unlimited season, but operations are poised to open any day.

The recently expanded Convention Center maintained access to the river for paddlers to play in the waters upstream from Division Street Bridge. “We

MEMORABLE

tell customers to park in the Convention Center parking area, walk through the breeze way, hit the Centennial Trail, turn right and there we are,” Quien said.

City ordinance prohibits swimmers or craft in the river downstream from Division Street because of the falls and power generating structures. However, floatable water resumes below Maple Street where a new boat access at Glover Field is planned pending funding from the Washington Legislature.

Fun Unlimited’s business last year was more than 50 percent locals checking out a new way to enjoy the river, Quien said. She’s working with downtown businesses to increase the visitor segment this season.

“There are seven hotels around us,” she said. “If you’re staying at the Marriott and you can look down and see 15 people enjoying the river on SUPs or kayaks, you’re going to want to try it. Offering recreation is a nice addition to all

the shopping and dining downtown.”

Building recreation into major construction projects has caught on downtown. Kendall Yards developers embraced the Centennial Trail and literally paved the way for a Monroe Street underpass and expanded biking, hiking, running, paddling and fishing recreation in the river gorge.

Trail work is planned on the south side of the river to connect a 3.5-mile gorge walking-biking loop from Kendall Yards on the Centennial Trail to Sandifur Bridge and back upstream through Peaceful Valley to Monroe Street Bridge.

There’s no need to wait for the project’s completion. The basic route has been hiked for years by people using Riverside Avenue sidewalks on the south side of the river.

Avista redeveloped the 3.8-acre Huntington Park into an inviting place to walk, sit, snack or burn calories running the steps along the falls.

The city’s $320 million project to install a 2.2 million-gallon stormwater tank east of Monroe Street and south of the falls includes plans for more recreational pedestrian connectivity.

The river is good for downtown because it encourages people to linger, say advocates including Andy Dunau, executive director of the Spokane River Forum.

“We’ve come a long way since the industrial age when the community turned its back on the river and faced its buildings away from the river and told their kids not to swim in the river,” he said.

Dunau, who’s running for Spokane City Council, says his nonprofit has promoted the river as a resource and brings agencies and the public together to find win-win solutions to river issues. “Recreation is a huge part of that,” he said.

He helped develop the Spokane River Water Trail in 2013 with a website that allows users to find river access points, services and other information. “Since we started the trail, nine new or restored access sites have been added to the river,” he said.

Water is more than part of the experience of being downtown, he said.

“Businesses need help in recruiting the best talent, and the Spokane River is part of what welcomes talent to the downtown and Spokane area. A river that isn’t clean works against you. The Spokane River is clean, fishable and swimmable. It’s Spokane’s signature.”

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PARKING

History, future of parking Strategies, options evolve with growth

By Kip Hill THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Exasperated downtown parkers can direct their anger at the Washington Supreme Court the next time they’re counting quarters to plug meters.

In 1941, as then-Spokane Mayor Frank Sutherlin called the machines “glorified alarm clocks” in the pages of the Spokane Daily Chronicle, judges rejected the legal argument from Brooks Kimmel, a hosiery salesman based in the Peyton Building, to block their arrival in Spokane’s downtown core.

“Time limitations upon parking have been necessitated by abuse of the privilege ... It strikes us that the parking meter is admirably designed to accomplish that result,” wrote Justice Bruce Blake for the court, affirming the right not only of Spokane, but every city in Washington, to meter their parking. Within a year, Spokane had installed more than 1,100 meters downtown, and for the price of a nickel a motorist could park up to an hour.

These days, downtown visitors can still use those nickels, but also credit cards or a smartphone app to pay for their spot, which in most areas of downtown will cost you $1.20 an hour. This summer, new license plate-reading technology will be used by parking enforcers to make sure meter limits are strictly adhered to, as downtown businesses push for more empty spaces for shoppers and visitors staying for a short period of time, rather than workers staying all day.

“It’s a balance,” said Mayor David Condon in an interview earlier this month. “A lot of times, when you see the free parking, a lot of it is retail-only downtowns, and not the office-side of downtowns, so they’re able to manage that a little better.”

Parking meter rates have not risen in five years in Spokane, and officials say the added enforcement measures beginning July 1 are an effort to continue that trend.

Spokane’s rates, which are $1.20 an hour in

DAN PELLE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Time on a downtown Spokane parking meter has expired for a Chevy parked on Riverside Avenue.

Parking, by the numbers: 5,103 garage spaces 4,987 surface lot spaces 2,277 metered on-street spaces $2.09 average hourly rate in downtown garages $92.60 monthly average downtown garage rate 58 percent average parking occupancy downtown 2012 last time Spokane’s parking meter rates changed Source: Downtown Spokane Partnership, City of Spokane

most locations and 40 cents an hour at allday meters, stack up well against similarsize cities across the region and nation. In some areas of Boise, rates are as high as $2.50 an hour, and in Des Moines, Iowa – a city with a population also around 215,000 – parkers pay up to $1.75.

Tacoma, Olympia and Baton Rouge, Louisiana – a city slighter larger than Spokane – all have lower hourly rates, ranging from 50 cents to a dollar. Condon called the downtown parking system “dynamic” in Spokane, and pointed to the recent additions of card and cellphone payment systems, planned improvements to bus ser-

vice downtown, Riverfront Park upgrades that will offer better walking routes to the heart of the city and greater availability of angled parking. The latter has been tried on a block of Main Street and near City Hall.

“There’s going to be a lot of market forces that will be available in the next 36 months, that I would be careful about doing more than a lot of these advances that we’ve made,” Condon said.

Spokane has a long history of experimenting with parking options downtown, said Andrew Rowles, public policy and parking manager for the Downtown Spokane Partnership. He pointed to the “pigeon hole” parking system developed by brothers Vaughn and Leo Sanders in the 1940s, a two-man elevator system that lifted cars off the street and cost much less than concrete structures at the time.

“I think that’s just a reflection of the fact that we are now grappling with some of the challenges that growth in the urban core brings,” Rowles said of the strategies the city is trying now to handle parking for downtown visitors.

One option other cities have employed is a municipal-owned garage system.

Rowles said that’s not a priority of the downtown group right now, but the idea is being considered and discussed.

Spokane’s last project that would have led to the city owning a garage for public parking, however, failed as part of a controversial public-private partnership rev-

italizing River Park Square, the downtown mall that’s owned by the Cowles Company, which also owns The Spokesman-Review. When the garage didn’t earn the revenue that had been projected, the deal fell apart and became embroiled in a series of lawsuits. The city eventually was supposed to take ownership of the garage, but in a final settlement in 2005, the city agreed to let ownership stay with the mall.

City leaders also agreed to issue $25.6 million in bonds to complete the pay of the original debt issued to remodel the garage.

The city refinanced the debt last year and will continue paying that off using parking meter revenue until in 2025. In 2017, the city is scheduled to pay $1.9 million.

Some options have been floated by the City Council and others to reduce burdens on developing land downtown occupied by surface lots. Condon pointed to several recent downtown developments, including the Davenport Grand Hotel, as evidence the market was already pushing toward providing tenants with parking and moving away from surface lots.

“I’m a free-market person, and you see it working,” the mayor said. “As people go to build these things, that’s exactly what’s happening. The reality is, the value of property goes up, then it makes sense to build buildings.”

CONTACT THE WRITER:

(509) 459-5429 kiph@spokesman.com

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JUNE 25, 2017

HISTORY

SPOKESMAN-REVIEW ARCHIVE

Riverside Avenue and Post Street were busy streets in 1909. Peerless and Wentworth clothing companies, right, faced The Crescent, “Spokane’s Greatest Store.”

HISTORY OF ‘TOWN’ PROFOUND CHANGE Economy fluctuated, population boomed

By Jim Kershner SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

1880s: In 1880, nobody called it “downtown.” It was just plain “town.”

An 1884 “bird’s-eye-view” map shows that almost everyone in the fledgling city of Spokane Falls lived in what we would today call downtown. North of the river and south of Fourth Avenue was the province of ponderosa pines and wildflowers.

Almost all of the businesses were clustered within two blocks of the intersection of Riverside Avenue and Howard Street.

The commercial buildings were rarely taller than two or three stories, often rickety, and almost entirely wooden. This contributed to what happened on the most momentous day in the history of downtown Spokane. Nearly all of downtown burned to the ground in the Great Fire of August 4, 1889.

1890s: Yet the fire was also responsible for an astonishing downtown rebirth. Almost immediately, businesses began rebuilding. This time, they built in more substantial ways – taller, and with brick. An 1890 aerial view map, drawn just 11 months after the Great Fire, shows dozens of impressive brick buildings, many of them six or more stories high.

SPOKESMAN-REVIEW ARCHIVE

This undated photo shows the Mint pool room and cigar store at Main Street and Bernard Avenue. Owner William G. Cody, possibly in the apron, lived above.

Some of today’s iconic downtown buildings sprang up in the years after the fire, including the Review Building and the Northern Pacific Depot (now the Spokane Intermodal Center).

Another development in this decade, the proliferation of streetcar lines, would have tremendous implications for downtown. No longer did people need to live within walking distance of downtown.

This launched the gradual transition of downtown from a place where most people lived, to a place where most people commuted.

1900s: Spokane simply exploded in this decade. At the beginning of the decade, Spokane’s population was 36,848. By the end, it was 104,402.

This boom was reflected in a bustling, crowded downtown, jammed with mass-

ive brick department stores, office buildings and banks. The theaters alone were a marvel – six of them had capacities above 1,000. The streets were clogged with streetcars, horse-drawn wagons, and by the end of the decade, a few autos.

By 1905, downtown stretched out roughly to its proportions today. Even the sidewalks were cluttered. Pedestrians had to dodge barber poles and – outside of Spokane’s dozens of cigar stores – wooden Indians.

There were hardly any trees. The trees mostly vanished in the fire, to be replaced by forests of utility poles. Some poles had as many as 28 cross arms, according to Spokane architectural historian Robert B. Hyslop. However, by the end of the decade, most of the downtown wires would go underground.

Downtown’s character changed block by block. Trent Avenue was Spokane’s skid row, notorious for saloons, bawdy houses and flophouses. A nearby area called Trent Alley was Spokane’s “Chinatown,” filled with Chinese and Japanese shops, restaurants and apartments.

1910s: Now a new problem arose, which plagues downtown to this day: parking. Autos became commonplace and no one knew exactly how to accommodate them. In 1917, new parking rules were instituted for the “congested district” (downtown), mandating a one-hour time See HISTORY, 29

SPOKESMAN-REVIEW ARCHIVE

Above: The Crescent Store basement lunch counter in 1931.

Right: The Abraham Lincoln statue overlooks Monroe Street and Main Avenue in 1931. It moved in 1967 to a nearby traffic island.

SPOKESMAN-REVIEW ARCHIVE

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HISTORY HISTORY Continued from 28 limit. Authorities would continue to experiment with parking rules in ensuing decades.

New construction techniques and elevator technology allowed buildings to reach new heights. The 12-story Davenport Hotel was finished in 1914 and immediately became one of downtown’s architectural landmarks.

The sidewalks were loud and crowded, used by street peddlers, news vendors and streetcar dispatchers in kiosks.

1920s: Every square foot, it seemed, was jammed with shops, including many that occupied basement spaces, accessible via steps down from the sidewalk.

“I cannot specifically remember any vacant lots,” wrote Hyslop, who grew up in that era. “There were about four times as many businesses as there are now.”

Parking was an increasing challenge, but nobody had yet contemplated tearing down a building to create a parking lot. In this decade, the first rudimentary traffic semaphores appeared in the middle of downtown intersections. These were called “dishpans,” with a red sheet-metal blade for “stop” and white blade for “go,” operated by a policeman with a shrieking whistle.

Downtown noise was sometimes deafening, with the constant clang of streetcar gongs, the whine of delivery trucks, and the shout of newsboys.

1930s: The Great Depression hit Spokane hard, yet downtown was livelier than ever. Howard and Riverside remained the hub and it was often a “crush of people,” wrote downtown historian Carolyn Hage Numemaker.

Traffic lights made their first appearance on Riverside Avenue and later at 12 other intersections. The huge increase in auto traffic spelled doom for Spokane’s streetcars, which rumbled off the scene in 1936, replaced by buses.

Neon signs began to brighten downtown buildings, first on the RKO-Orpheum Theater, and then, most famously, on The Washington Water Power building. The “Reddy Kilowatt” figure appeared be running across the roof.

Spokane’s downtown railroad tracks were now elevated – an improvement the city had sought decades before – yet this created another problem. Downtown was virtually walled off from the Spokane River by a stack of elevated tracks. People parked their cars in the gloom beneath the iron girders.

The 1940s: Uniforms were everywhere during the World War II years. Downtown Spokane was the nearest big city for thousands of service personnel, including the trainees from Farragut Naval Training Station. They arrived by the busload and jammed the theaters, bars, ballrooms and the three downtown USO clubs.

The Davenport Hotel, the Coeur d’Alene Hotel and the Desert Hotel, among others, allowed uniformed men to sleep on the sofas, chairs, floors and even the carpeted stairs. A newspaperman toured the downtown hotels one Saturday night and saw about 1,000 servicemen asleep in lobbies.

When the war ended, it spawned what was probably the largest celebration in the history of downtown (with the possible exception of the celebration at the end of World War I). Confetti flew from office windows and a long chain of dancers performed an impromptu “snake dance” down Sprague Avenue.

For a few years after the war, downtown continued to thrive – but profound changes were looming.

GROCERIES Continued from 12 and sustainable foods.

But, “If you want healthy, all-natural food, I don’t care where you’re going to buy it, you’re going to pay more for it,” Richard said.

Higher prices can be a deterrent for some downtown dwellers. “In bad weather, I’ll go to Main Market,” Ella Piskun said. But, she said, the young couple can’t afford to shop there on a regular basis.

Max Piskun said he’d like to see a Win-

SPOKESMAN-REVIEW ARCHIVE

City Hall was at Trent Avenue and Howard Street when this photo was taken in about 1904. At the time, Trent was Front Avenue, fronting the Spokane River. The fire station is on the left with the four arches. The police station had two arches.

1950s: Those changes were caused by decentralization and suburbanization. People and businesses were moving farther out to the suburbs – as they were in nearly every city in America.

Spokane’s first shopping mall, Northtown, opened in 1954. Downtown’s longtime monopoly on shopping and banking was over.

Downtown office buildings hung out vacancy signs. Some closed everything except the first floor. Some buildings were no longer economically viable and were torn down. Some of those lots became parking lots – a last-ditch attempt to compete with the ample parking at outlying malls.

In 1958, the biggest blow came. Sears Roebuck announced it was closing its downtown department store and moving to Northtown. By the end of the decade, downtown accounted for only about 40 percent of Spokane’s retail sales.

1960s: Downtown merchants and landowners sounded the alarm. The sidewalks seemed deserted, on the same corners where they were once crowded five-deep.

A group of downtown business people formed a group called Spokane Unlimited, which raised enough money to commission a downtown redevelopment plan from Ebasco, a New York consulting firm.

In 1961, Ebasco issued its report, which gave a gloomy assessment of downtown Spokane. Among its problems were “obsolescence, traffic congestion, blight” and a “drab and sometimes unappealing general appearance.”

However, Ebasco had a plan for “corrective surgery.” The report recommended removing the wall of railroad tracks, improving access to the Spokane River, adding more parking garages and improving pedestrian traffic with more attractive sidewalks and overhead walkways. The city’s voters were asked to approve a $10 million bond issue to fund a centerpiece of the plan, a new city hall/government center. Voters rejected it in both 1962 and 1963.

Hardly any of the report’s suggestions were implemented in this decade. Nobody

dreamed that an even more audacious plan would be implemented in the next decade.

The 1970s: The plan was called Expo ’74, and it combined a world’s fair with a sweeping downtown urban renewal project. A group of downtown visionaries had the inspired notion that they could implement large portions of the Ebasco plan and invite the entire world to come and help pay for it.

It was an astoundingly risky venture.

Spokane was easily the smallest city ever to stage a world’s fair. However, when Expo ’74 came to a close, more than 5 million people had walked through the gates.

The fair already had accomplished many of its urban renewal goals, including getting rid of the wall of railroad tracks. Work began immediately on another key goal, reclaiming the downtown riverfront. Riverfront Park was dedicated in 1978, creating, in essence, a gorgeous front yard for downtown Spokane. The park eventually would serve as the gathering spot for downtown’s two biggest events, Bloomsday and Hoopfest.

The 1980s: The decade got off to a towering start, with the construction of the 20-story Seafirst Financial Center (now known as the Bank of America Financial Center). It was, and still remains, the tallest building in Spokane. It was followed in 1982 by the 18-story building that is now the Wells Fargo Center.

Meanwhile, downtown Spokane had implemented another Ebasco suggestion – overhead walkways, or skywalks. By 1984, downtown had 14 skywalks, more than any other city except Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Downtown now had foot traffic on two levels.

1990s: Spokane’s downtown was better-preserved than many declining American downtowns, but its prospects were cloudy. Two major department stores departed – J.C. Penney and Frederick and Nelson (formerly the beloved Crescent).

Downtown still had many of the same problems identified in the 1960s, the most serious being a continued migration of pe-

ople and businesses to the suburban fringes.

Then in 1999, River Park Square was redeveloped into a massive downtown shopping mall. It provided downtown with a sleek, upscale shopping hub, but its controversial public-private partnership spawned intense political debate.

2000s: Two historic symbols of Spokane’s old downtown were saved from the wrecking ball in dramatic, last-minute rescues.

The first was the Davenport Hotel, which had once been one of the most elegant hotels in the U.S. It went into a slow decline in the 1950s and had sat empty since 1985. It was saved from destruction by the Friends of the Davenport and buyers Walt and Karen Worthy, who restored the old hotel to its former elegance. It reopened in 2002.

The second was the 1931 Fox Theater, which also went through a sad, slow decline, from an Art Deco palace, to a chopped-up discount movie house, to a candidate for demolition. It was saved by a massive Save the Fox campaign organized by the Spokane Symphony, which envisioned the Fox as its new home. The symphony raised $31 million to buy it and restore it to its Art Deco prime. It reopened in 2007 to the majestic strains of Brahms.

The 2010s: A newly thriving downtown was due, in part, to its own history.

Many cities had thoroughly razed their historic downtowns in the 1950s and 1960s to erect giant unfriendly office towers. Spokane’s 1950s-1960s slump meant less go-go construction, and more surviving historic buildings – even if the reason at the time was indifference.

Now, many of those character-filled brick buildings have been converted into brewpubs, restaurants, cafes, workspaces, apartments and condos. In 2012, the National Trust for Historic Preservation held its national convention in downtown Spokane.

Why? Because there was so much history to see, dating all the way back to the 1880s.

Co Foods store, or something like it. “WinCo has everything,” he said. “And the prices are unbeatable.”

He has high hopes for the forthcoming My Fresh Basket. “If the price point’s right, we’ll definitely go there.”

My Fresh Basket is within walking distance for residents of Kendall Yards and the western edge of downtown.

“I think Main Market has the east end covered,” said Juliet Sinisterra, the business development manager for the Downtown Spokane Partnership.

She’s hopeful a smaller, local grocer like Rocket Market moves into the downtown

core. “We’d love to support something like that. If anyone’s interested, get a hold of me.”

Rosauers recently launched an onlineordering and delivery site. The convenience comes with an added cost. The introductory cost is $7.95 per delivery. If customers aren’t home during the twohour delivery window, they’re charged another $5 for a return visit.

Shaun Chambers lives in a loft near his work. He would like “any normal grocery store in downtown in walking distance.” A year-round farmers market “would be awesome.”

Something like that could already be in the works. The developer of the old Wonder Bread building just north of the Spokane River is repurposing the former bakery complex. Plans for the $12 million renovation project include a food court.

That idea is intriguing to bartender Simon Moorby, who moved downtown “to simplify things.” But instead, he said, “Grocery shopping has become a bit of an inconvenience.

“I live right in the heart of downtown, and there’s nothing,” he said. “It stinks.”

Meanwhile, he said, “I can’t wait for Kendall Yards.”

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SPORTING EVENTS

COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVEW

Bloomsday runners got their start on Riverside Avenue in 2017, but construction in Riverfront Park resulted in a few changes at the finish line.

Best sports venue in town Roots Basketball’s Josh Wilson, right, fights Spokane Club’s Blake Stepp for a loose ball during Hoopfest Men's Over 6’ Elite Championship Game in 2014 at the Nike Center Court in Riverfront Park.

The main court was relocated for Hoopfest 2017 due to ongoing construction in the park.

Downtown a perfect site for our 2 most iconic athletic events

By Vince Grippi FOR THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

The biggest, and quite possibly the best, athletic venue in Spokane may surprise you.

It’s not Gonzaga’s McCarthey Athletic Center or Joe Albi Stadium. It’s not the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena or Avista Stadium. Though those are all nice, well-maintained facilities that represent Spokane well.

It’s the city’s downtown.

Yep, that amalgamation of streets, parking lots, buildings and the occasional tree.

It’s home to Spokane’s two most iconic yearly sporting events, Bloomsday and Hoopfest. And it really should be home to more – but we’ll get to that, hopefully before your parking meter runs out.

Could Bloomsday, would Bloomsday, be the world’s largest timed road race if it didn’t begin and end among the manmade canyons around Riverside and Main?

And would Hoopfest have grown from its humble beginnings if it weren’t played on downtown’s streets?

Rick Betts, the man with the brilliant idea that grew into the monster that is today’s Hoopfest, doesn’t think so.

When Betts, who happens to work in one of downtown’s largest buildings, came up with the idea of Spokane’s 3-on-3 basketball tournament with a decade left in the 20th century, he realized early on it had to be downtown.

For many reasons.

“The most interesting reason to have it there,” he said recently, “is (downtown) is the least likely place you would hold a sporting event like Hoopfest.

“Why would you do that?”

Betts knew the answer to his question was contained within that age-old real estate adage about location.

“Because of all the restaurants, the shopping and options of things to do between games,” he said, “it becomes a much more desirable location.”

Eric Sawyer, CEO and president of the Spokane Sports Commission, which works to bring athletic events to the area, agrees.

“Spokane has a vibrant downtown that makes for an attractive sports venue,” he said, not only referring to participatory events like Hoopfest but also the spectator

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ones at the Arena and Convention Center as well. “We have found we have a marketing advantage over many other cities when we propose any of the downtown venues for events.”

Hoopfest could have been played under the freeway. Or in parking lots. Or even at a local college. Such were the spots reserved for most tournaments in 1998.

But after observing a tournament held on the sterile – and hot – blacktop of Seattle’s Kingdome parking lot, Betts knew such a location wouldn’t fly here.

So downtown it would be.

Thankfully.

“It’s a fun backdrop,” Betts said. “When you have buildings on both sides, it’s almost like you are playing in an arena.”

Of course, Hoopfest wasn’t the first participatory event based downtown.

That honor, in a big way, goes to Bloomsday.

When Don Kardong gathered together more than 1,000 of his disciples for a run the first Sunday of May 1977, the race headed west out of downtown. And ran into history.

Kardong’s vision quickly grew into the world’s largest timed race. As many as 61,298 folks have registered. And all of them experience Spokane’s downtown.

That experience plays out in the cold of the morning in the shadow of the buildings and finishes in the – usually – warmer sun at Riverfront Park.

But not this year.

Bloomsday and Hoopfest have had to evolve to deal with the park’s multimillion-dollar remodel, which is actually a

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positive.

“The park (remodel) certainly has created a big challenge for us,” said Hoopfest Executive Director Matt Santangelo. “Not all bad. Hoopfest is such a large battleship that, if you make any changes, people notice them. (And ask), ‘What did you do that for? We’ve been doing it this way for 25 years.’

“This gives a chance to try some things.

Some will work really well, some won’t.”

With the park construction, Hoopfest’s center court is moving south across Spokane Falls Boulevard.

The size of the event – and the construction of the Grand Hotel – made it necessary a few years ago to move north of the river, into the Arena’s parking lot and outside the core.

“There is a challenge for us to keep that connected to, quote-unquote, Hoopfest downtown,” Santangelo said.

Santangelo knows you can’t separate Hoopfest from downtown, not that the former Gonzaga star guard would want to.

“That’s really part of the charm, and the attraction for teams that keep coming back, year over year, because it was so unique,” Santangelo said. “There is really nothing like it, that a city would literally shut down in order to accomplish a 3-on-3 streetball tournament.”

In fact, if Betts had his way, there would be more integration.

He envisions a nearly two-month recreational celebration, starting with Bloomsday (held the first Sunday in May) and ending with Hoopfest (the last weekend in June), during which more events of

their ilk would be held downtown.

He knows there would be pushback – just as there was when Hoopfest blossomed in the early 1990s and the downtown business community initially struggled with limited customer access on a summer weekend.

As he sees it, however, the long-term potential is worth the short-term logistical problems.

“As we build a reputation as a recreational center, we have to facilitate those choices,” Betts said, pointing out that the growth of living space downtown and the soon-to-be-new-look Riverfront Park make it an even more desirable location. “This is the kind of stuff we should be encouraging.”

Maybe such ideas aren’t as far-fetched as they were in the mid-1970s, when Kardong hatched his Bloomsday idea.

Riverfront Park’s footprint is expanding north. The Convention Center actively hunts for more participatory sporting events. And, according to Sawyer, there is a mechanism in place to deal with conflicts: the Downtown Spokane Partnership.

“Sometimes events can be a challenge, like trying to close streets for an event,” Betts said. “The partnership takes a proactive approach and helps us work through the process.

“In talking to my peers from other communities, this is not always the case with their downtown associations.”

Maybe it’s because no one else has quite the same venue. It’s certain no one has utilized it the same way.

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BICYCLES / CONTINUED VESTAL Continued from 24

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Bill Braten and Dave Joyce of Sharp-Line Industries Inc. add a stencil to a lane on Sprague Avenue indicating travel for both vehicles and bicycles.

Get familiar with downtown bike routes

By Mike Prager THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

A series of designated bike routes have been established in downtown Spokane and are seeing increasing use.

Some of the routes are marked with separate bike lanes, such as the Howard Street corridor.

Others have shared-use symbols indicating that bikes and automobiles are allowed in those lanes. The markers are sometimes called “sharrows.”

The Spokane Regional Transportation Council offers an online map at srtc.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html.

Also, Spokane County’s commuter trip reduction program provides printed maps to employees through their work places and at special events.

“We really want a bike friendly downtown,” said city planner Brandon Blankenagel. “In order to do that we have to carve out space for bikes.”

He said downtown is conducive to bike traffic since vehicle speeds are generally slower than other parts of the city and region.

In the downtown area, designated bike lanes are found on Spokane Falls Boulevard, segments of Main Avenue, Howard Street, Jefferson Street, a small segment of Lincoln Street, West Riverside Avenue, Bernard Avenue, Second Avenue, Third Avenue and

DINING Continued from 12 ble and Yards Bruncheon in the Kendall Yards development, as well as Gilded Unicorn downtown. He also has a catering company and cafe in Liberty Lake, and is preparing to open a new restaurant in Ponderay. Last year, he was in the running for the James Beard Award.

“This is it. This is home. I’m where I want to be,” Hegsted said.

A thriving dining-and-drinking scene is critical to a prosperous urban core, said Mark Richard, president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, a nonprofit membership organization aimed at creating a “dynamic, safe, vital, livable and sustainable downtown.”

Ten years ago, Richard said, the downtown dining scene was in fair shape. But, “If you go back 20 or 25 years,” he said, “not so much. You’d be hard-pressed to find a dozen unique dining experiences you’d want to travel for.”

“I don’t think we’re lacking in good quality restaurants,” Richard said. “But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t have more variety.”

That’s what Hansen envisioned when he opened Sante.

“I want to be in a city that has diversity in the food culture,” he said. “The restaurants I was working in at the time were full of fake food. ... I wanted to work with whole foods.”

After Sante, Hansen opened Common Crumb Artisan Bakery in the Saranac Commons building in downtown Spokane. That was followed six months

Fourth Avenue.

The University District also has bike lanes.

Shared lanes that have markings are on Sprague, First, Second and Third avenues.

New markings were placed on Sprague and First avenues and Bernard and Sherman streets in early June in a multi-year effort to implement a bike master plan.

The bike network on downtown streets is complemented by an expanding network of interconnected trails. The Centennial Trail provides the backbone of the network. One of the largest additions is the trail connection from the Ben Burr Trail in Liberty Lake to the University District.

A connection on Martin Luther King Jr. Way is close to completion and opening.

Bicycle planning includes discussion of improved bicycle parking and a bicycle sharing program, Blankenagel said.

Construction in Riverfront Park has caused detours for the trail there.

Bikes are prohibited on Interstate 90 through downtown and the northern end of U.S. Highway 195.

Bicycles are also prohibited on sidewalks in the downtown area, but the rule is rarely enforced. Bikes can be a hazard to pedestrians, especially those exiting buildings.

ago by Hogwash Whiskey Den and Inland Pacific Kitchen, both in the old Washington Cracker Co. building.

Now, Hansen plans to open Biscuit Wizard, a casual counter specializing in biscuit sandwiches, in Saranac Commons in July. And he has two more establishments in the planning stages: an octopus-themed gin joint and a traditional French brasserie, both of which are slated to occupy the first floor of the former Ridpath Hotel.

In 2012, Blaine opened Central Food in what was then an undeveloped area overlooking the Spokane River and the downtown skyline. Today, Kendall Yards is home to Hegsted’s two restaurants as well as locally owned Nectar Wine and Beer, Veraci Pizza and Brain Freeze Creamery – with more dining options on the way, including the Paper and Cup coffee shop.

Ruins, on North Monroe Street, opened in 2014, about three years after Brown started Stella’s Cafe, a popular sandwich shop that consolidated with Ruins.

Although Spokane’s food scene is expanding, Brown said, “it’s pioneer country here.”

Shaun Chambers, head chef at the hip Durkin’s Liquor Bar which opened in downtown Spokane in 2014 and is owned by the same restaurateurs who own Madeleine’s, agrees. “There is momentum. It’s getting better. I think Jeremy opening so many restaurants helps. That’s setting a standard of what we could be or should be.”

And the expansion of Spokane’s dining and drinking scene isn’t done yet.

“But it hasn’t really exploded,” Hansen said. “That is still coming.”

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tions and tangible investment, driving these endeavors forward in a cohesive, substantial and sustainable manner. To this end, I would love to see an actionoriented – and adequately funded – plan, led by the City, empowering the expertise of partnering organizations, to foster the creation of local business, encourage placemaking, and put the health and well-being of all Spokanites at the heart of all decision making.”

A multi-purpose sports complex Also from Mark Richard: “Across the U.S., we are seeing a resurgence of sports facilities constructed in urban cores. The analysis done by the Spokane Sports commission provides the evidence for what we all know instinctively; we are a major sports destination city with gaps in facilities needed to serve both local athletes and to attract more national tournaments. By building the proposed multipurpose facility adjacent to the Arena, we can host more regional and national sporting competitions in about any sport imaginable and create jobs throughout the entire region as a result.”

Fewer cars Jim Sheehan, owner of the Community Building and Saranac Commons on West Main: “We need Main Street to be closed to traffic – at least from Lincoln to Washington. Make it just a walkway for pedestrians. Put in flowers, benches and trees and make it inviting.

This will make for a completely different atmosphere downtown. Traffic separates us – it’s physical barrier. But we have to do whatever we can to bring people together. We need more connection.”

A museum While I like the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and its current location in Browne’s Addition in many ways, I often wonder what it would be like to have it – or something like it – in the downtown core, adding another option for something to do for visitors and locals alike.

Free parking?

We asked people on Facebook for their suggestions for downtown. Several people mentioned a food truck zone, pedestrian-only streets, a zoo and cheaper (or free) parking. Many mentioned a grocery store – while acknowledging that there’s a new one coming very soon in Kendall Yards. Several other readers emphasized eliminating problems such as crime, homelessness and potholes.

Here are some of the suggestions readers offered: Karen Mobley: A contemporary art space with regularly scheduled open hours, more stable housing for the poor

and indigent, and a cat café.

Megan Cuilla: Garbage/recycling/ compost bins throughout downtown.

Killian Campbell: A pedestrian-only street (like the one next to Urban Outfitters) but populated with food trucks/ vendors, benches and pieces of art.

Jenniffer Lynn Cooke: A usable trolley system just for downtown. Make our city more accessible via fun affordable transportation since parking is so limited and expensive.

Justine McKenzie: You know those “tourist” signs up in Seattle that have a map of the area and destinations marked on it so you can find your way about? Those would be nice.

Nancy Azzopardi: An aquarium, a zoo, a full-sized planetarium ... in other words ... Golden Gate Park ... without Californians.

Tim Christie: Streets without potholes that swallow cars.

Brian Havens: Tasteful landscaping and revitalization of many dilapidated areas in downtown. Everyone sees Spokane while driving on I-90 through the heart of the city and yet our freeway doesn’t have tasteful landscaping at all.

Seattle’s freeways are gorgeous. I see it being a good bang for the buck to throw up some simple hardy plants and take pride in our freeway to create a more welcoming image.

Tina Page: Free parking throughout Spokane. That’s the biggest reason I won’t go into Spokane. There is nowhere to park unless you want to pay.

Mary Marr Lenz: Instead of putting a cover on the pavilion in the park, Spokane needs to put small lights all over the whole framework. It will look spectacular at night!

Dario Ré: Contemporary Art Museum! It’s utterly important (especially for a city the size of Spokane) to give our locally based creative practitioners and art enthusiasts opportunities to experience contemporary work and be in dialogue with larger veins of contemporary art.

Erik Nelson: Paid biking corral so families can safely park their bikes downtown without having them stolen.

The garage at RPS (River Park Square) should have one.

Audrey Duff Overstreet: Good old-fashioned band shell with greenspace to picnic and listen to live symphonic music or create a mosh pit.

Kim Cameron: A light rail system that goes from Cheney to Couer d’Alene, right through downtown Spokane.

Damon Aikman: Uhh ... a doughnut shop! It is so weird that downtown Spokane does not have one. I think it’s UnAmerican!

Cody Walters: Twenty-four more trash goats.

Brian Parker: A really complete gun shop.

Mark Kinney: Huge old-school record store.

Congratulations Downtown Spokane!

We are proud to be a part of Spokane’s past, present and future. Special thanks to Downtown Spokane Partnership, Greater Spokane Incorporated, the University District, and the Worthy and Cowles families for leading the way forward.

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