Grading work is expected to continue this spring on the Saltese Creek Development that will bring 400 living units to east Spokane Valley, says Ken Lewis, a real estate broker familiar with the property.

Meantime, developer Dave Black, who leads a company behind a separate long-planned housing development with nearly 600 units planned in the former Painted Hills area in Spokane Valley, says the company is working through permitting issues and hopes to begin work on flood-control measures this year.

Lewis, owner and broker of the Spokane Valley office of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices First Look Real Estate, says the 80-acre Saltese Creek development planned at 17426 E. Eighth, about a mile east of Central Valley High School, will have two components. The first will consist of a 320-unit apartment complex, and the second will have 80 single-family homes.

“They did preliminary work in the fall and got permits through and will start pushing dirt and getting ready for the apartment complex as soon as the weather straightens out,” Lewis says.

The developer, Eagle, Idaho-based Cedar & Sage Development LLC, is listed as the contractor on building permit applications for the apartment complex. Snodgrass Freeman Associates, of Gig Harbor, is the architect.

Whipple Consulting Engineers Inc. is providing engineering services, and Caliber Excavation Inc., of Rathdrum, is grading the site according to permit information.

The apartment complex will have 32 units in each of 10 buildings with a total value of $160 million, permit information shows.

Lewis says about 80 luxury single-family homes, each exceeding $1 million in value are planned in a second component of the development.

“They’ve got a lot of trees to take down in the subdivision on top of the hill,” he says. “Then they’ll rough in a road and start staking lots.”

The Painted Hills development is planned on 99 acres of land at the site of the former Painted Hills Golf Course at 4403 S. Dishman-Mica Road. It will have over 250 single-family lots, more than 225 multifamily units on a 10-acre lot on the northwest portion of the development, and a mixed-use project with 52 additional living units and commercial space, site plans show.

Black says no contractor has been selected yet for the flood-control measures.

Flood-control measures would include replacing culverts under Thorpe Road with a system of channels and pipes leading to a stormwater treatment swale and an infiltration pond, project information on file with the city of Spokane Valley indicates.

—Mike McLean