Obscured by black tarps, a seven-story garbage shoot, and a road closure on Post Street, the redevelopment of the historic Peyton Building from office use into a 96-unit mixed-use apartment building is taking shape in downtown Spokane.

Spokane developer Jordan Tampien is part of the investment group leading the renovation of the Peyton Building.

Tampien, along with Seattle-based investor Doug Dingman and Ryan Berg, of Spokane-based Crafted Beauty, purchased the building from Scott Isaak, of Peyton Chelan LLC, for $12 million in February 2023.

“We are about to dump $20 million into this building,” says Tampien. “It should help everything around it.”

Spokane Valley-based T.W. Construction LLC is the contractor on the renovation project. Evan Verduin, co-owner and principal of Spokane-based Trek Architecture, is listed as the architect, according to building permit information on file with the city of Spokane.

Design plans for the historic former office building show a mix of commercial and residential units.

“The plan is to keep the first floor all commercial, and floors two through seven will be residential,” says Tampien.

Most of the apartments will be one-bedroom units with  650 square feet of living space, featuring flexible den space that can be used as an office or a second bedroom, Tampien previously told the Journal of Business. 

A mixture of 1,200-square-foot, two-bedroom units and 500-square-foot studio units comprise the remainder of the residential units.

The project calls demolishing the interior of the135-year-old building, which comes with a unique set of challenges, Tampien explains.

One block of Post Street on the west side of the property is closed due to the construction project.

“It’s a really hard building to construct,” he says. “When you build on 5 acres, you can stage stuff all around, you can get vendors in and out. … Here we only have two lanes.”

Building improvements will highlight tall ceilings and large windows in the apartments, which are expected to appeal to modern tenants, Tampien says. 

Construction began in October and is expected to be complete in March 2026, he says. 

The former office building is one of the oldest structures in Spokane and was designed by Kirtland K. Cutter’s firm Cutter & Malmgren in 1898. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2005.

—Tina Sulzle