Construction of the 44-unit apartment complex behind the historic Garland Theater is expected to wrap up in August, owner and developer Ryan Berg says.

T.W. Clark Construction LLC, of Spokane Valley, is the contractor on the project, which has a construction cost of $5.7 million.

Spokane-based Press Architecture LLC designed the project.

Work on the roughly 35,000-square-foot, four-story apartment building at 951 W. Walton began in November.

“We really tried to make sure that it blended or that it was very similar use of materials as the Garland Theater,” Berg, of Spokane-based Berg Group Development LLC, explains, noting that it was important to tie it into the neighborhood.

The walk-up apartment building will contain a mix of studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units.

Berg describes it as market-rate workforce housing.

An official name for the apartment complex hasn’t been decided on yet, he adds.

Residents of the building will have access to the existing parking lot to the east behind the retail spaces, some of which Berg owns.

Street parking is also available.

Another apartment complex was recently completed less than a quarter mile to the east, at 3909 N. Wall, directly north of the former Masonic Temple on west Garland Avenue.

The four-story, $10.5 million North Hill Millennium development features 60 units and one commercial retail space, as well as a small parking lot.

Units at the North Hill Millennium apartment complex are now available, according to the Millennium Northwest LLC website.

As the Journal of Business previously reported, the new infill housing soon will turn the popular district into an informal case study that examines the effects of the city’s decision in August to remove minimum parking requirements for new developments.

While parking is a concern for some in the area, the two new housing developments have also created optimism among some business owners in the area who think the increase in foot traffic and nearby residents can have a positive impact.

—Dylan Harris