Two Spokane investors, Dan McKinney and Bill Main Jr., have bought the former Spokane Police Guild Club near the Spokane County Courthouse, have converted it for office use, and have formed tentative plans to develop a larger office park there.


McKinney, who owns a disability-management business here called Vista Consulting Services, and Main, who is the designated broker for Re/Max of Spokane Inc., bought the property earlier this year through a company they created called McMain Office Parks LLC, and since then have been making improvements to it.


Their acquisition included not only the 6,500-square-foot, former Police Guild Club, at 1212 W. Sharp, but also a nearby four-unit apartment building, two rental homes, and about two acres of underlying and adjoining land. The overall property, which is located along a ridge and offers views of downtown, encompasses all but a small piece of the block bounded by Sharp and Sinto avenues and Adams and Jefferson streets.


McMain has upgraded all of the structures on the site, has renamed the property the Ridge View Office Park, and has begun seeking an office tenant or tenants for the former Police Guild Club, which has been mostly vacant for several years.


McKinney declines to say how much McMain paid for the buildings and land, but expects the appraised value of the property, with the newly completed improvements, to be around $800,000 to $900,000.


Because the property is close to the Spokane County Courthouse complex, where a space crunch has been worsening due to a need for more courtrooms and growth in various county departments, McKinney says, Wed love to get a long-term government tenant or someone who works with the county on a consistent basis.


McKinney says he and Main hope within five years to begin developing as much as 80,000 square feet of additional office space on the property, perhaps as an expansion of the former Police Guild Club or through the construction of other buildings.


He estimates such a project could cost around $100 a square foot, which would put the total value of the project at about $8 million.


The Spokane Police Guild is the collective-bargaining unit for rank-and-file police officers here.


Guild members built the club on Sharp around 30 years ago. The single-story building with a daylight basement included a bar, kitchen, small stage and dance floor, and office space.


For many years, the club was a popular establishment, as police officers and associate club members socialized there, and the Police Guild, a retired officers group, and other organizations held meetings and special gatherings there. A uniform store and law-enforcement officers credit union also occupied space in the building for a time. However, the club eventually closed due to waning interest.


Don Jamison, of Re/Max of Spokane, handled McMains purchase of the former Police Guild property and now is marketing space for lease in the former Police Guild Club.