A Spokane development company is moving forward with the first phase of its planned 170-lot River Run subdivision along the Spokane River in northwest Spokane.


The company, Fort Wright LLC, has received approval from the city of Spokane to develop the first 54 lots and a three-acre park in the development, which it first announced in 2000, says Tim Murphy, a principal in the company. Many of the infrastructure improvements are done, and construction of the first homes there is slated to start later this month, Murphy says.


River Run is being developed on about 130 acres just east of Government Way and south of Fort George Wright Drive, near Spokane Falls Community College. The southern border of the property fronts on the river, and a number of the planned lots overlook the river.


Murphy says work is scheduled to start yet this month on nine homes to be built speculatively, and those likely would be completed early next year.


So far, Dave Largent Homes Inc. and Homes by George Paras Inc., both of Spokane, have signed up to construct homes at River Run. Murphy says the development company is talking with two additional contractors who also might build homes there.


Homes in the first phase of the development likely will range in price from $225,000 to $500,000, with houses at the lower end expected to be built on hillside lots, and higher-end homes on larger, riverfront lots.


Jack Couch, a real estate agent with Tomlinson Black Valley Inc., and Gary Cozza, an agent with Tomlinson Black South Inc., both of Spokane, are marketing the development.


Couch says he expects the neighborhood to appeal to professionals who work downtown, since the development is a five-minute drive from the citys core.


Also, he expects to attract South Hill buyers frustrated by the lack of buying opportunities on the South Hill.


Couch says he expects that it will take about a year to sell all of the lots in the first phase. The additional planned 116 lots likely will be marketed in three future phases, and River Run probably will take four years to develop fully.


River Run also includes a 10-acre site northwest of the subdivision that currently is zoned for multifamily housing, but Murphy says Fort Wright LLC hasnt decided what it will do with that property yet and is considering uses other than apartments.


The development also includes a narrow strip of commercial land along the northern end of the property, along Fort George Wright Drive, which is at a substantially higher elevation than the land on which the subdivision is being developed. Murphy says that land likely will be developed into small retail and office buildings.


Just west of the subdivision, along Government Way, Life Center Foursquare Church is constructing a new facility on 30 acres of land that the church bought from the development company last year.


Fort Wright LLC consists of the former stockholders of Central Pre-Mix Inc., including Murphy and his two older brothers, Mike and Dan Murphy. Central Pre-Mix had operated a gravel pit on that site for several decades.