Construction of Community Health Association of Spokane’s new $16 million health training facility is running slightly behind schedule but is on track to open in May, says Kelley Charvet, chief administrative officer at CHAS Health. 

The exterior shell of the new 91,700-square-foot building has been completed recently by Spokane Valley-based construction company Divcon Inc. Workers from Spokane-based general contractor Baker Construction & Development Inc. have started work on the first-floor interior, she says. 

Spokane-based ALSC Architects is the project architect.

“It’s been really great to see how it’s been progressing since this spring,” says Charvet. 

The property is located northeast of the East Trent Bridge and along the Spokane River, at 731 N. Iron Bridge Way, on the Iron Bridge Office Campus.

The CHAS Health Learning Institute will occupy the entire 30,000-square-foot first floor, says Cheryl Cervantes, vice president of facilities at CHAS Health.  

Construction crews currently are framing the interior walls, and installing heating, ventilating, and air conditioning ductwork throughout the first floor. 

The building will have a 550-square-foot lobby and reception area that lead to a 700-square-foot lounge bordered by a wall of windows that overlook Iron Bridge.

Laboratories and classrooms will occupy the north half of the building. Training spaces include a 450-square-foot pharmacy, a 1,900-square-foot medical simulation space with four exam rooms, a 2,000-square-foot dental simulation room with four exam chairs, and three other classrooms, site plans on file with the city of Spokane show.

The southern half of the first floor will have flexible spaces for meetings and classes that range between 600 to 1,500 square feet, designs show.

Charvet says the institute will mimic real clinical settings, “So that it doesn’t seem foreign to (participants) once they walk in there. It’s actually things that they’ve been practicing day-to-day, so they have that comfort level once they get into the clinic setting.”

The training institute will house apprenticeship programs for medical assistants, dental assistants, and pharmacy technicians, and some residency programs, she says. 

“To date, we’ve graduated 75 medical assistants, 50 dental assistants, 41 pharmacy technicians. Right now, we’ve got about 95 active apprentices in our system,” says Charvet.

When the new health training facility is finished, she says CHAS Health’s apprenticeship programs are expected to increase the number of graduates by 20% year-over-year. 

The second and third floors are anticipated to be completed in 2025, Cervantes adds. The top two floors of the three-story building will house the organization’s administrative staff.

Additionally, the health institute will provide room for CHAS Health to bring workers back onsite that are working remotely right now, she says.

Charvet says CHAS Health will continue operating the 60,000-square-foot admin building located south of the training center site, at 611 N. Iron Bridge Way, in the office park.

“We’re shifting around where the different departments are going to be residing,” explains Charvet. “When we moved in here during COVID, we actually thought we were going to have all kinds of space for expansion, and it’s quickly changed. We have more staff than we could handle in this building.”

CHAS Health has grown about 20% annually since the pandemic began due to a growing population and increased patient demand, explains Charvet, who says the growth trend is expected to continue in the future. 

CHAS Health has additional capital projects in the works including two school health centers at North Central High School and Shadle Park High School that will be operational in the first quarter of 2024, says Charvet.

The organization also will finish improvements and move into a new behavioral health clinic next summer in Lewiston, Idaho, she adds.

Additionally, the organization will wrap up construction of its Parkside clinic that will bring medical, behavioral, and pharmacy services to Spokane’s Chief Garry Park neighborhood.