The city of Spokane has issued permits for two long-anticipated projects along Regal Street on Spokane's South Hill that together are valued over $50 million.

Building permits were issued in July for the first phase of the long-planned Radio Park commercial development, where a four-story apartment building, dubbed The Frequency, will be constructed at 5222 S. Regal.

Spokane-based Radio Park LLC, which is named in reference to the property's history as home to a KXLY-TV transmitter tower that previously operated at the site for decades, owns the 16-acre property.

The land was acquired by Radio Park in 2017, and developers submitted a building permit application for the first phase of The Frequency apartments in early 2021. 

After passing a plan-review stage, permit approval was extended once in 2022 and again in 2023, city records indicate. 

Carl Guenzel, managing member of Radio Park and commercial real estate broker with Spokane-based Kiemle Hagood, previously explained to the Journal that the apartment project was first put on hold due to financing costs. Guenzel couldn't be reached immediately for comment for this story.

Design plans for The Frequency now call for a 153-unit, 180,100-square-foot apartment building with an attached 84,300-square-foot parking garage with 223 stalls. 

The first floor will have 36 units comprised of six studios, 16 one-bedroom units, and 14 two-bedroom units. The second floor will have 39 units of a similar mix as the first floor, the third floor will have 40 units, and the fourth floor will have 38 units, site plans show.

The apartment project has an estimated construction value of $32 million, according to a building permit application.

Spokane-based Yost Gallagher Construction is the general contractor; Bernardo Wills, of Spokane, is the project architect; and the Spokane office of Coffman Engineers is the civil engineer, according to the permit application.

The second phase of construction at Radio Park is envisioned to include two more apartment buildings for a total of 307 units and 500 parking stalls.

Another project is underway less than a mile north of The Frequency development on South Regal Street, where permits also were issued for Home Depot's new $17.8 million store at the site of a former Shopko store, at 4515 S. Regal, city records show.

Demolition of the 29-year-old, 100,400-square-foot former Shopko store is complete, says Rob Hay, of Bailey Construction & Consulting LLC, of Little Rock, Arkansas. The property had been vacant since 2019.

Bailey Construction is listed as the contractor for both the demolition of the Shopko store and the construction of the new 136,300-square-foot Home Depot development, permit information shows.

MG2 Corp., of McLean, Virginia, is listed as the architect on the project. 

A State Environmental Policy Act checklist previously submitted for Home Depot shows that the 108,000-square-foot retail store and 26,000-square-foot garden center could open by summer 2025 and employ about 200 workers.

Home Depot USA Inc., which is based in Atlanta, purchased the 13-acre property for $10 million in June from SHS Building LLC, a Phoenix-based real estate investment company, tax records show.

Project updates:

*Residential home building company Lexington Homes-DRH LLC, of Spokane Valley, is developing a five-unit townhouse-style building on about 3.5-acres of vacant land at the Mill River housing complex, at 3276 N. Grandmill Lane, in west Coeur d'Alene.

Permit approval for the building was granted in early October. The multiunit structure has an estimated construction value of $1.4 million, according to a permit application on file with the city of Coeur d'Alene.

The Spokane Valley office of D.R. Horton, a national home construction company based in Arlington, Texas, is the contractor. The Bellevue, Washington, office of Dahlin Group Inc., an architecture and planning company based in Pleasanton, California, is the project architect. Spokane-based Storhaug Engineering Inc. is the building engineer, and Dale Thomas Plumbing & Heating Inc., of Hauser, is the mechanical engineer, permit information shows.

So far, a $4 million site-development permit has been issued along with the first of multiple expected building permits for townhome-style structures. Three more residential building permits valued over $3 million are under review that together will add another 10 units at the site, according to permit data.

Mill River is a residential neighborhood comprised of apartments and condos on the north bank of the Spokane River, west of the ongoing Atlas Mill development.