Spokane developer Rob Brewster Jr. has bought seven buildings and a parking lot in the east end of downtown Spokane and is planning a multimillion-dollar construction-and-renovation project there.


The buildings include a total of about 84,000 square feet of floor space and are on the eastern portion of a city block bordered by Riverside Avenue, Browne Street, Sprague Avenue, and Bernard Street. The former Sylvan Furniture Co. buildings are among those structures.


Brewster declines for now to disclose many details of his plans for the property. He has scheduled a press conference for May 15 at which he plans to divulge his plans more fully. He does say, though, that he plans to erect a new building on the parking lot space and to renovate the older structures.


The project will include some sort of housing and retail in all of the buildings, Brewster says.


Brewster bought the structures in two separate transactions.


Through a limited-liability company he formed called Havermale Park LLC, Brewster bought for $1.2 million the 21,000-square-foot former Alger/Bristol Hotel building, at the northwest corner of Sprague and Browne, the 13,000-square-foot National Building, at the southwest corner of Riverside and Browne, and an 80-space parking lot directly west of those two structures. Spokane attorneys Randall and Connie Stamper sold the buildings to Brewster, and that transaction closed in March.


Both of those three-story structures are largely vacant, but each has a ground floor retail user. Merlyns Science Fiction Fantasy Store and Colburns Art Gallery lease space in the Alger/Bristol and the National buildings, respectively.


Through Benewah LLC, Brewster bought for $875,000 five buildings that abut one another and front on Riverside, Sprague, or both. The buildings range from a one-story garage to a four-level retail structure and had been owned for years by the Dreifus family, which owns and operates Sylvan Furniture.


The Dreifuses had operated a furniture store out of parts of those buildings from 1945 to late 2001, at which time they moved the main store to 1233 N. Division. For about the past year, the family had used the downtown buildings as a clearance outlet for Sylvan.


Earlier this year, the Dreifuses disclosed that a developer had approached them about buying their downtown buildings. Brewster says it was he.


Brewster says he decided to pursue the project because of increased activity in downtowns east end, specifically the four-story office building currently under way across Browne from the buildings he acquired, and the Legion Building renovation a block to the west.


Also, he says, a Downtown Spokane Partnership-commissioned study on downtown housing was pretty instrumental in my decision.


The study, released in February, found that downtown Spokane could absorb 300 market-rate living unitseither apartments or condosa year for the next five years, if such units were available.


Michael Edwards, the partnerships executive director, says its encouraging that the study has helped to trigger development downtown so quickly.


Also, he says, The study verified what we already anecdotally discovered. If thats all true, very hopefully, well have announcements of more housing projects downtown soon.


Brewster has renovated a couple other downtown Spokane buildings during the past five years, including the Holley Mason Building and the Montvale Block building.