With nearly all of its living units currently occupied, Fairwood Retirement Village & Assisted Living is eyeing $7.1 million in expansion projects at its campus on Spokanes North Side.


Sam Knutson, manager of Fairwood Village, says the community plans to start work this spring on a $4.6 million addition to its main independent-living building and might follow that project with a $2 million addition to its assisted-living quarters. It also plans this summer to make about $500,000 in improvements to its community building, informally called the hub building.


The planned expansions, which would add a total of 57 living units to the complex, are intended to address strong demand at the 185-unit retirement community, located on 22 acres at 312 W. Hastings, Knutson says.


We have been 99 percent full for some time now, and we have between a third and a half of the planned (independent-living) units pre-sold, Knutson says.


Residents there pay an initial buy-in fee when they move in, then fixed monthly rents thereafter, he says.


The independent-living addition is expected to be three stories tall with a total of 60,000 square feet of floor space. It will house 35 living units, ranging in size from 1,000-square-foot one-bedroom units to three-bedroom units more than twice that size.


That addition will be built at the northeast corner of the main independent-living building. The structure currently is L-shaped, and the additional wing will make the structure horseshoe-shaped.


If work starts this spring as expected, the addition should be completed in October, and residents will be able to move in shortly thereafter, Knutson says.


Fairwood plans to upgrade and expand its hub building this summer. That structure houses a variety of common areas, including a computer lab, a swimming pool, a television lounge, and a garden courtyard. The project will include adding 2,000 square feet of space at the hub buildings south end that will house an activity center. Knutson says that center will be used for large resident activities and will be available to residents for special events.


Fairwood currently has 55 assisted-living units, all of which either are occupied or are spoken for. If those units are fully occupied later this year, Fairwood likely will start work on the $2 million expansion of its assisted-living building. That 20,000-square-foot facility will have 22 living units, Knutson says.


Fairwood Village is owned by Ron and Joyce Knutson. Ron Knutson and Sam Knutson are brothers. They both have construction backgrounds, and the family acts as its own general contractor on projects at the retirement community. Architect Jerry Shogan, of Spokane, is designing the additions.