Avista Corp. plans to break ground this week on a new $22 million building that will replace its 61-year-old natural gas facility in Spokane Valley.

To be located at 2406 N. Dollar Road, the 88,000-square-foot Dollar Road Service Center will be four times larger than the facility it will replace at the same site, says Avista spokesman David Vowels. The current building was constructed in 1956.

Vowels says 70 Avista field crew workers and administrative support staff are based at the old facility.

“This is being built to accommodate the growth in customers that we’ve seen since 2000 and anticipate continuing to see in the future,” Vowels says.

Once finished, Avista will be able to move its entire natural gas meter shop—including its 10 current employees and all service vehicles—to the new center from the company’s corporate campus at 1411 E. Mission, Vowels says.

Spokane-based ZBA Architecture PS is the project architect, and Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the construction manager.

The new building is scheduled to be completed by early summer of 2019, he says.

Avista, through its Avista Utilities division, provides electric service to 379,000 customers and natural gas to 342,000 customers, according to Avista Corp.

Its service territory covers 30,000 square miles in Eastern Washington, North Idaho and parts of southern and eastern Oregon, with a population of 1.6 million.

In July, Avista announced it’s being acquired by Toronto-based utility Hydro One for $5.3 billion U.S.

The transaction, according to the two companies, will allow Avista to maintain its corporate identity here.