People who share their impressions of Dick Edwards, a prominent Spokane commercial real estate broker and a catalyst behind economic development on the West Plains, tend to include three descriptors: smart, good, and honest.

“That’s a pretty good trifecta,” says Tom Tilford, of Spokane, who has invested in several projects involving Edwards over the course of 50 years. “Dick didn’t make an effort to be anything but an Arky from Arkansas who happened to have a very good mind.”

Edwards, 81, co-founder of Spokane-based commercial real estate brokerage Hawkins Edwards Inc., died Feb. 11, likely due to cardiac issues, while swimming during a vacation in Cancun, Mexico, says his son Kevin Edwards.

Tilford says Edwards’ plain-spoken manner often hid the fact that he had an engineering degree from the University of Arkansas and an MBA from the University of San Francisco.

“He was well educated and very intelligent,” Tilford says. “Dick was one of the good guys. His sense of honesty wasn’t always typical of the real estate industry. He never inflated things he represented.”

Tilford says Edwards had a firm belief in the potential for economic development on the West Plains.

“Dick was instrumental in getting the Amazon fulfillment center where it is,” he says.

A few other West Plains land transactions Edwards had a hand in include the Petro Travel Center, the Caterpillar Inc. distribution center, and the Douglass Legacy Park.

Pete Thompson, a commercial real estate broker with the Spokane office of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices First Look Real Estate, says he has been a “handshake partner” with Edwards for about 40 years.

"He and I were kind of the 'Odd Couple,'" Thompson says. "He used to call up and say, 'Hey, you can write, but I'm good with numbers.'"

Edwards always had a bigger picture in mind regarding how to create more jobs and prosperity and put Spokane on the maps, Thompson says. “He single-handedly drove the process to get the West Plains opened up for business.”

Mimicking Edwards’ gravelly voice, Thompson recalls him saying, “That West Plains has got everything it needs … two interchanges and an airport. All we have to do is get sewer and water out there.”

Thompson credits Edwards with spearheading efforts for the city of Spokane to run water service along Thorpe Road, west of of the city limits, first by convincing some of the “provincial” landowners in the area to go along with his vision to attract commercial development.

“He could call anybody,” Thompson adds. “One time, he called the CEO of General Motors because he bought a new Suburban that wouldn’t go frontward or backward. He also asked the guy for some Rose Bowl tickets. I don’t think he got the tickets, but he did get his transmission replaced.”

Longtime Spokane bond lawyer Roy Koegen, who's now based in Oregon, says Edwards pioneered the use of tax-increment financing in Washington state.

“He was a great contributor to Spokane County (with) his vision to do things that the government didn’t have the cash to do,” Koegen says.

Tax-increment financing is an incentive for developers to construct and finance public infrastructure up front with costs to be refunded later through new property tax revenue generated by development served by the infrastructure.

“He had a vision and was persistent and bold,” Koegen says. “He took all the economic risk. He would front capital for public improvements. The first project took almost nine years before he got one cent.”

Kevin Edwards, also a broker at Hawkins Edwards, says his father thoroughly enjoyed life.

“He never looked at work as work,” Kevin says. “He loved putting deals together with partners.”

He says his father grew up in a small town in Arkansas and worked for the California Department of Transportation before settling in Spokane in 1973.

“He wanted to end up in the Northwest and thought Spokane was a great spot to raise a family,” Kevin says.

When the family traveled, his father tended to be on watch for economic development opportunities that might work for Spokane, collecting thousands of photos of commercial developments over time.

“Anytime we took a family vacation, he was always looking at industrial parks and buildings,” Kevin says. “He loved driving around cities looking for different ideas for what product to bring back to Spokane.”

Edwards is survived by his wife, Leslie Edwards, and sons Justin, Kevin, and Chris Edwards.