If the last piece of state funding falls into place as planned, the Spokane unit of the Salvation Army plans to launch in July a major remodeling of the two-story Sturm Building it owns on its campus near Ruby Street and Indiana Avenue.


Maj. Ben Markham, Spokane regional coordinator for the nonprofit, says a combination of state and local money will be used to remodel the 20,000-square-foot building at an estimated cost of $2.4 million. He says that if the project gets under way this July as planned, it should be completed by February 2007.


We dont want to sound in any way presumptuous or arrogant, but we have a high level of confidence that the state will provide the last piece of funding for this project, says Markham. That last piece amounts to $1.2 million, which the Salvation Army chapter requested last fall from the Washington state Housing Trust Fund. A decision on that grant is expected in late May, he says.


The other $1.2 million needed for the project has come primarily from a number of local private sources, he says.


Earlier, the Salvation Army unit here landed a $1.5 million grant from the Housing Trust Fund to help finance construction of its $3 million transitional housing building in 2004, Markham says.


For the Sturm Building project, the nonprofit plans to remodel the 12,000-square-foot lower level of the structure for use as a family-services center, with offices, classrooms, a food bank, and warehouse space, he says. The 8,000-square-foot upper level will be developed into a family shelter with the capacity to house 90 people at a time, Markham says.


The planned new family shelter will replace a shelter the Salvation Army operates about two miles away at 1403 W. Broadway, which can house up to 48 people.


That three-story shelter, to be put up for sale once the Sturm project is completed, has a total of 10,000 square feet of floor space on the top two levels, which are used as the shelter, plus another 5,000 square feet of space on the lower level used for storage, Markham says.


Although Markham says the Sturm Building has been gutted to the walls in preparation for the project, he adds, It was constructed in the late 1960s or early 1970s as an early tilt-up concrete building, and is really solid.


He says the building was the former home of Sturm Heating Inc., which moved to 1112 N. Nelson, in 2002.


The Salvation Army has been buying and developing property on the block bounded by Ruby and Lidgerwood streets and Indiana and Nora avenues for the last eight years, Markham says. After the Sturm Building is remodeled, the nonprofit will have one more piece of property there to develop, a vacant lot west of the Sturm Building, he says.


That property could be used for a permanent supportive housing building where individuals and families could stay for extended periods of time and pay rent on a sliding income scale, Markham says. Design work on that structure, which could be built in 2008 or 2009, currently is in the preliminary stages, he says.


The Salvation Army campus currently has a 5,000-square-foot administration building; a four-story, 32,000-square-foot transitional housing building with 30 three-bedroom apartments; and a two-story, 27,000-square-foot community center that includes a gymnasium, swimming pool, chapel, classrooms, and, in the lower level, about 5,000 square feet of space for a foster-care program called Sallys House.


Markham says the Salvation Army will contact about five or six selected contractors for the Sturm Building project, and ask them to submit bids. The project was designed by Cortner Architectural Co., of Spokane.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at [email protected].