Ginno Construction Co., of Coeur d'Alene, has started work on a $1.4 million lab at the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife's Eastern Washington regional office in the Mirabeau Point area.

Rich Wells, a project manager with Ginno, says the single-story, 5,300-square-foot structure is being built just west of Fish and Wildlife's building at 2314 N. Discovery Place.

ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane, designed the project. It is scheduled to be completed by April 9, Wells says.

The lab will accommodate scientific work that will range from sampling fish DNA to conducting necropsies on moose, says department spokeswoman Madonna Leurs. It also will have secure evidence storage for the department's enforcement division and storage for some of the agency's maintenance equipment.

The lab building will be the second of three phases planned at the department's five-acre parcel there, she says. The departments' 14,000-square-foot, two story office building, opened three years ago.

A planned third phase, which hasn't been funded yet by the Washington Legislature, would include facilities for parking and vehicle storage. The agency's vehicles currently are stored in leased warehouse space, Leurs says.