Across Spokane, employers are embracing design elements that draw workers in — features like a two-story preserved moss wall bursting with greenery and light, or a custom staircase that not only links two floors but also floods the lower level with natural light and invites connection across teams.

For Michael Sharapata, managing director at the Spokane office of commercial real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., projects like these illustrate how commercial design has become one of the sharpest tools for attracting and retaining talent.

Once considered an afterthought, office space is now part of the recruitment pitch, and Spokane is uniquely positioned to capitalize, Sharapata contends. With rents here that are far below coastal markets in Seattle and San Francisco, Sharapata says more companies are able to invest in design upgrades that foster collaboration, wellness, and culture.

Coming out of the pandemic, employers were focused on attracting talent, and began to reinvest in their workspaces to counteract the work-from-home culture that had set in, Sharapata explains. Now, it appears the workforce has reached a balance in which many companies, in addition to investing in their environments, operate on a hybrid work model that allows workers to work from the comfort of their homes and find those same amenities and cozy home-like atmospheres at work.

“I think executives are starting to realize that a team that comes together is more effective than one that stays apart,” says Sharapata about the benefits of having teams physically interacting at the office rather than interacting remotely. 

Sharapata knows the stakes well.

Since opening JLL’s Spokane office eight years ago, he and his team have helped shape some of the region’s most prominent commercial projects. From downtown Spokane landmarks like the Bank of America Building, to the Wonder Building in the North Bank neighborhood, and the Catalyst building in the University District, JLL has guided national firms and local employers through the process of reimagining their workplaces.

One of the most ambitious examples is underway downtown at the Bank of America Financial Center, located at 601 W. Riverside, where a 22,000-square-foot remodel is transforming two floors of typical office space into what designers are calling a “resi-mercial” environment, that is part workplace, part living room. The tenant did not wish to be named in this story. 

The project was designed by Spokane-based Uptic Studios Inc. Taylor Stevens, architectural design lead with Uptic, says the renovation’s centerpiece is a dramatic new floor opening which connects the second-level lobby to the third floor via a custom-built staircase. That staircase, he notes, required extensive engineering coordination and fire suppressant systems.

Anchoring the design is a two-story moss wall, a biophilic feature meant to promote wellness and provide a striking focal point visible from the building’s atrium, Stevens says.

A highlight of the third floor is a large rooftop patio that overlooks Main Avenue and Howard Street, he adds. The design of the second-floor lobby emphasizes a comfort-driven workplace that features homelike elements in an office setting, including a fireplace, lounge seating, and a coffee bar.

“The biophilic moss wall and residential-inspired amenities reflect growing workplace trends focused on employee wellness and stress reduction, creating a unique downtown office environment that prioritizes both functionality and well-being,” Stevens says.

This is just one project taking shape inside the Bank of America Building, a 20-story Class A office building boasting roughly 334,800 square feet of space. 

Its owner, British Columbia-based Redstone Spokane I LLC, which operates under the Redstone Group of Cos., has poured resources into upgrading the property — from 24/7 security and attached parking garages, to welcoming tenants that provide entertainment and other amenities for the tower, including Spokane Valley-based Swing Lounge, a virtual golf simulation space, and BLVD Coffee Co., of Spokane. The building also features an advanced air filtration system, dubbed the MERV Filtration system, which filters the building's air three times, Sharapata says. The system is an appealing amenity during wildfire season, he adds. 

“In the summertime, sometimes you’ll have weeks on end when you can’t even go outside because the air is so bad,” Sharapata notes. “This is an environment where you spend over half your adult life, so we’re going to make this a healthy and engaging environment for you.”

-Karina Elias
Swinerton Builders’ newly renovated office space at the Scott Morris Center for Energy Innovation, at 12 N. Sheridan, in Spokane’s University District.
 

West of downtown, in the University District, the Catalyst Building has garnered national attention as one of the region’s only net-zero office projects, serving as a model for how sustainable design can also function as a recruiting tool.  

At the start of the year, the Spokane office of Swinerton Builders, a commercial general contractor based in Concord, California, moved into a newly renovated space at the Scott Morris Center for Innovation, at 12 N. Sheridan, located south of the Catalyst Building on the South Landing. 

The company occupies the entire fourth floor, totaling over 9,500 square feet. Swinerton’s office features a wide open layout, natural light that pours in from south-facing windows, and communal spaces filled with homelike furniture. Guests stepping out of the elevator are greeted by a cozy seating area featuring a wood stump coffee table positioned in front of a built-in fireplace.

Jeremiah Shakespeare, Inland Northwest division manager for Swinerton, says the predominant goal of the remodel and relocation was to create a “home away from home” where the company's workers, clients, and partners could collaborate.

“We envisioned a space that inspires innovation and creativity,” Shakespeare says. “These elements were already components of the Morris Center DNA, and they allowed us to create a dynamic space that provides flexibility for our growing team and provides an environment that people look forward to going to every day.”

The space is complete with warm-toned, natural finishes and touches of cross-laminated timber, Shakespeare says. Overhead ceiling finishes create depth and interesting views while maintaining advanced acoustics, energy efficiency, and use of technology and lighting, he adds. A collaborative space that can be scaled to varying sizes, dubbed “The Sandbox,” invites individuals to come together and have fun while working toward a common goal.  

The Wonder Building, the former site of the Wonder Bread bakery on the North Bank of the Spokane River, is another example of how a building can showcase adaptive reuse and attract tenants. The owners of the Wonder Building were Sharapata’s first major client when he opened the Spokane office of JLL. At the time he took on the listing, the building was virtually empty. Within 10 months, however, the three-story, 100,000-square-foot building was 90% leased, he says.

Over the years, tenants such as Rover, a trade name for Spokane-based A Place for Rover Inc.; Spokane-based HDR Engineering Inc.; the Spokane office of HUB International Insurance Services Inc.; Colorado-based Sunflower Bank N.A.; Katerra Inc., of Seattle; and Spokane-based Treasury4 Inc. have been drawn to the building's location and design, which emphasizes open layouts, natural light, and river views. For employers, it became a place to showcase the city of Spokane to visiting clients, while offering workers a vibrant, central environment connected to the city’s cultural amenities.

“They’ve created an environment that should be modeled,” Sharapata says.

For Sharapata, these projects underscore how Spokane’s office market is evolving. He has grown JLL to four brokers and about 90 staff, who work in facilities management, property management, development management, and automation management. The brokerage also has four commercial real estate agents. Additional clients represented by the brokerage include the City of Spokane, Federal Defenders, Foster Garvey PC, World Relief, United States Postal Service, and other Fortune 500 tenants not disclosed due to confidentiality agreements. JLL is a Fortune 200 publicly traded company based in Chicago, and has a global platform with about 112,000 employees worldwide.