The downtown Metro Block, mostly vacated last year by Spokane-based Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., is to be renovated into a creative business incubator that would seek to attract artists, writers, designers, and some high-tech businesses, according to a Downtown Spokane Development Plan draft that is to be released today.


Metro Block is the name used for the four connected buildings that occupy most of the city block bounded by Monroe and Lincoln streets and Sprague and First Avenues, west of the Davenport Hotel. Metropolitan Mortgage has been looking at a possible arts-oriented redevelopment of the block, which it owns and where its main offices formerly were located, but has declined to divulge any details, saying its studies still are preliminary.


Metropolitan already owns the Metropolitan Performing Arts Center, at 901 W. Sprague, which is part of the Metro Block. Any arts-related redevelopment of the rest of the block presumably would seek to complement the events that take place at The Met, which is the abbreviated, more commonly known name for the performing arts center.


The Downtown Spokane Development Plan draft says that the proposed renovation of the block is being envisioned as a rebirth of Spokanes Second City. It predicts that, The creativity and dynamic energy of the renovation program will make the Metro Block a major anchor within the Davenport Arts District and further enhance the character of the downtown retail core.


Second City was the name used by a group of small retail shops, galleries, restaurants, and other start-up businesses that occupied the old Kroll Building, on the south side of First Avenue between Wall and Howard streets, during most of the 1970s. Due partly to the concentration of artists and craftspeople that Second City attracted, and the offbeat type of atmosphere it developed, it sometimes was referred to in the news media as an alternative shopping center.


It ceased operating about 19 years ago when the Kroll Building, a two-story brick structure that previously had housed Kinman Business University and the University Club, was demolished to make room for construction of the 18-story Farm Credit Banks Building. Coincidentally, Metropolitan Mortgage bought the latter building in November 1997 and moved into it last summer, renaming it the Metropolitan Financial Center.


Despite Second Citys relatively brief existence, its remembered fondly by business people here who got their start there.


The nice thing about it is that it allowed somebody with an idea but not much money to get started. It was a pretty effective situation, says Spokane running guru and author Don Kardong, who formerly co-owned a fitness-apparel store, called the Human Race, that operated there for about a year before moving.


Judy Hamel, co-owner of Childrens Corner Bookshop, which opened in Second City in 1973, says, There were just all kinds of artists. It was a wonderful incubator for small businesses. Some wonderful things happened there. I felt very lucky to kind of test the water there, and really learned a lot.


Rings & Things, a downtown jewelry business whose owner, Russ Nobbs, is out of town and couldnt be reached for comment, also got its start there.


The Metro Block project is one of five strategies listed under the heading of arts, culture, and entertainment in the downtown development plan. Arts, culture, and entertainment, in turn, is one of a number of broader strategies that the plan addresses. (See separate story this issue.) The Spokane City Council and the City Plan Commission both are expected to consider adopting the development plan as part of a new comprehensive plan.


Metropolitan is a family-owned business that has more than $1.3 billion in assets. It buys real estate contracts, it sells securities, manages a real estate portfolio, and operates an insurance subsidiary.