Tod Stephens: The Dirt: Housing development planned for west Spokane

May 3—Plans have been sent to the city of Spokane to build 72-units of housing near the Copper River Apartments in west Spokane. The site, owned by Catholic Housing Services of Eastern Washington, is across the Spokane River from Doomsday Hill.

Still in preliminary talks with city planners, the project is called the River Family Haven and has not yet been submitted for permit approval. The plans remain subject to change.

But according to submitted documents, the project, at 2720 W. Elliott Ct., will include four buildings.

The largest building will consist of two structures conjoined by a 2,500-square-foot covered patio. Each structure will be three-stories tall with each encompassing about 9,000 square feet.

One of the conjoined structures will offer eight units of housing on each floor. The other structure will offer eight units on the top two floors and have an education center in its ground level.

Another residential structure will have four floors with each containing about 9,500 square feet. That building will offer 32 units of housing.

The other two buildings are planned to include a 3,500-square-foot community building and a maintenance shed.

Plans outline potential future developments as well, including a cultural and recreation center, a smaller cultural center, garden center, a basketball court and additional parking.

Spokane Valley business park

The Shiva Business park is a project consisting of two commercial buildings, each with three separate shops available for lease to small businesses, according to developer Max Shiva.

"Tenants are small business in town, or electricians and other subcontractors, that want a secure place to keep their vehicles and other equipment," he said.

Shiva and his crew recently completed the first of the two buildings at 10903 E. Trent Ave., dubbed the "Shiva Business Park," in Spokane Valley.

Shiva planned to own and operate the rental properties but recently was offered a deal he could not refuse to sell the property.

Next door, at 10819 E. Trent Ave., Shiva has submitted plans to the city of Spokane Valley for the construction of the exact same project, to be called the "Shiva Business Park II." But this time, he will not sell the property no matter what, he said.

The two projects are a departure from his previous experience as a housing developer. He and his crews built single- and multifamily housing until he decided to try something different, he said.

"We've done rentals, entry-level homes and mid-level homes around $700,000 and the pattern is consistent — the pride in homeownership has decayed year after year," he said. "It's disheartening."

After completion, homebuilders typically remain under warranty for a year after the sale of a property, to fix issues that may arise, he said.

"We'll follow up and the yard is ripped up, the fence is broken and the house is a mess," he said. "I mean, within a year, the house looks like it's been a rental for seven."

Instead, Shiva hopes tenants of his new development will take more pride in their space.

"These are different clients. They'll stay around if business is good," he said. "And when it's not good, they'll hand over the keys and move out. We won't have to deal with the crazy eviction process or anything like that."

Shiva said he's already signed leases for the completed building which include HVAC, shipping and equipment rental companies.

Tenants will rent 2,200-square-foot spaces that each include an office and a bathroom.

The projects cost around $1.5 million to construct, according to city records.

Black Iron Apartments

Spokane County received the newest permits submitted for the Black Iron Apartments, a 352-unit residential project located on North Standard Street just east of the Pine Acres Par 3 golf course.

Two permit applications were submitted this week, each for a four story-building encompassing about 38,000 square feet. Each structure is planned to contain 32 units.

The development, which is owned and being built by Lanzce Douglass Properties Inc., of Spokane, began with a pre-development conference in 2017.

Permits for 11 apartments buildings, each containing between 30-and-36 apartments, were first submitted for approval in 2021.

The project is expected to cost more than $50 million to complete.

The address of the project is listed as 11684 N. Standard Drive. It's just east of the par-3 golf course at 11912 N. Division St. and southeast of the Fred Meyer at 12120 N. Division St.

In March, permits were issued by the county to build eight parking garages.

Last year, planners obtained permits for 22 parking garages, a clubhouse with a pool and an associated pool house, according to Spokesman-Review reports.

In June, Mike Kiehn, who works with Russel Page Architects which designed the project, said he expects the project to take two to three years to complete.

The same group of designers and Lanzce Douglass Properties Inc., also obtained building permits to build nine buildings that contain a total of 280 units on a tract of land north of the Black Iron Apartments.

That location, 13119 N. Dakota St., is bordered by Dakota to the west and Wandermere Road to the east. Developers in 2018 sought and obtained a conditional use permit from Spokane County for that development.