ElkRidge Development Group, of Spokane, has agreed to buy 98 acres in the Spokane Valley from Spokane entrepreneur Bernard Daines and wants to develop an upscale, 240-home subdivision there.


Jim Maki, a Spokane-based partner in the development group, says the property is located on a wooded hillside just west of state Route 27, near its junction with 40th Avenue.


ElkRidge is seeking approval from Spokane County of a preliminary plat for the project, which is being called ElkRidge Heights. A hearing on the request is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 18.


Maki says the company will complete the land purchase after it receives approval of the preliminary plat. Work could start this spring on infrastructure improvements at the site.


As envisioned, ElkRidge Heights would include lots ranging in size from about a quarter of an acre to three-fourths of an acre, with the development having a small amount of common space.


Home prices in the development will start at $375,000, but Maki says the majority of the homes will be priced at between $500,000 and $600,000.


Five Spokane-area contractors will build homes in the development: Craftsman Homes, JTS Development, Lexington Homes, RSVP Construction, and Sullivan Homes, Maki says.


Maki says the partners in ElkRidge, who have developed similar projects together in North Carolina and Northern California, will use what they call a builder-management system to develop ElkRidge. With that system, the builders will form their own group to determine the logistics of developing the site and to decide who will market the property.


A Boston architect is creating the home designs, which will include some features found in historic Spokane homes, such as those designed in the late 1800s and early 1900s by Kirtland Cutter, Maki says.


ElkRidge Heights is the first Spokane-area project for the development group, says Maki, who is involved in ElkRidge with Pat Watson, of Spokane, and two Northern California developers.


The developers plan to incorporate as ElkRidge Development Group Inc. and pursue additional projects here, Maki says. He says they currently are looking at two other sites here for projects that would be similar in scale to the proposed ElkRidge development, but the group still is in the early stages of considering whether it will take on that additional work.


Daines is the founder of Packet Engines, a Spokane maker of high-speed computer technology that was sold to French electronics conglomerate Alcatel in 1998, and World Wide Packets, which makes fiber-optic networking equipment.


The land that ElkRidge intends to buy from Daines is a parcel that Daines fought vigorously in the late 1990s to have included in the countys urban growth boundary, an area designated by local government for development as required by the states Growth Management Act. In 1999, Daines sued the city of Spokane, alleging that it had violated the state act. Maki says the property ultimately was included within the growth boundary.