Spokane Valley-based Horizon Credit Union is renovating its headquarters and constructing a new facilities-management and storage building in Spokane Valley’s Mirabeau neighborhood.

Combined, the remodel and new construction projects are valued at about $1.6 million, according to permit information on file with the city of Spokane Valley.

Brian Grytdal, senior vice president of marketing and facilities at Horizon Credit Union, says the organization’s headquarters are cramped for space. Moving the facilities team to its own dedicated building, he says, also will help the organization expand to meet the needs of its growing administrative team. 

Horizon’s headquarters, a 46,100-square-foot building located at 13224 E. Mansfield, will be renovated in a multiyear project, he says.

“Since 2020, we’ve been doing a remodel of our admin building as we’ve grown,” he says. “As we started looking at the designs of the three floors we have here at Mirabeau, one of the lynchpins of the whole thing was to get facilities a proper space outside of the admin building, and that allowed us to create more space for other departments within Horizon that are growing as well.” 

Horizon’s new facilities building will be a 4,500-square-foot structure, valued at about $1.2 million. The project will provide a suitable space for the credit union’s facilities team, which currently operates from within the admin building. 

The new building will be located at 13212 E. Mansfield, west of Horizon’s headquarters.

The facilities team operates and maintains Horizon’s physical facilities and is responsible for building operations, such as cleaning, security, maintenance, and grounds management.

Grytdal says the physical security team is responsible for all of Horizon’s physical security measures, such as processes and procedures and working with local authorities.

The new building will give the facilities team areas for construction and workshops that it currently doesn’t have in the admin building, Grytdal says. 

Jeff Richards, director of facilities and maintenance at Horizon, says that the new building will be “for infrastructure and outside investigations. There will be power tools and hand tools in the workshop space for them to repair things and sometimes we need to build something they can handle internally.” 

Construction of the facilities building started in early December and is anticipated to wrap up at the end of July. The facilities building project will consist primarily of wood construction with an industrial-designed exterior.

“It’s more industrial looking (than the admin building), but it has been approved by the board that manages the codes, covenants, and restrictions for this area,” says Richards.

The design-build team for both the new facilities building and the headquarters renovations includes architecture firm Bernardo Wills and contractor Baker Construction & Development Inc., both of Spokane.

Richards says the facilities building will enhance Horizon’s ability to support more than 30 of its branches.

“We don’t currently have a purpose-built facility with the kind of infrastructure that’s needed for a facilities team,” he says. “This provides that and will allow us to be more efficient and effective.” 

Richards says two of the three vacant parcels of land west of the admin building were merged into one parcel for the project.

Richards adds that currently, construction crews are clearing the land, and will then prep for concrete work, which is scheduled for January, contingent on the weather.

“So we’re hoping for a warm January,” Grytdal adds.

The project won’t take up much of the 7.6 acres of vacant land at the site.

Richards says, “We’re glad it doesn’t, because the rest of the land that we own here is for a future additional admin building when it becomes needed.”

Grytdal says that there aren’t immediate plans for the additional projects, and those will be developed later and depend on evolving business needs.

 “We’re still going through planning for next year,” Grytdal says. “We’re looking at the future of remote and hybrid workspaces and what that’s going to look like.” 

Grytdal says Horizon Credit Union has had a remote-hybrid workforce since 2020. 

According to the Journal’s 2022 annual Spokane County Largest Employers list, Horizon Credit Union has 198 full-time equivalent employees in Spokane County—up 12.5% from 2021.