The owner and operators of the Playfair Commerce Park predict within a year as many as 5,000 vehicles will traverse through the park as a result of a newly opened street connecting Altamont Street with Ferry Avenue at the west end of the complex in East Spokane.

Previously the only way to enter the park was at the intersection of Ferry Avenue and Haven Street on the park’s east side.

Now, on Altamont—just north of Sprague Avenue—the street runs underneath a Union Pacific Corp. rail line and connects to Ferry.

With clearance space of slightly over 11 feet, an overheight warning system has been installed to warn drivers if their vehicle exceeds 11-feet-2-inches, a Playfair Commerce Park official says.

Playfair privately built the road and then donated it to the city of Spokane. Last week, park and city officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the new street connector. 

Lawrence Stone, president and CEO of Scafco Corp. and head of Playfair Commerce Park LLC, bought 48 acres of the 63-acre former Playfair horse racing track property from the city in 2010 for $2.1 million. Stone bought another 10 acres from the city at the beginning of 2016.

Since then, seven companies, including Scafco Steel Stud Manufacturing Co., have established operations in three completed warehouses there with more than 400 workers earning family wages, says Spokane Mayor David Condon.

Park representatives seeking to attract more tenants expect strong interest from businesses due to better access. The commerce park is bordered by the Union Pacific rail line to the south and west, and a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway line to the north and west. Haven Street serves as the Playfair property’s eastern border.

When fully developed, the Playfair Commerce Park is expected to include 12 buildings with a total of 800,000 square feet of space.

“It’s turned out to be a good site for distribution and manufacturing companies,” says Mark Lucas, Kiemle & Hagood Co.’s industrial specialist broker. “BN and UP have rail lines there so it makes it convenient for those businesses.”

Lawrence B. Stone PPTY Construction LLC was the contractor on the Scafco headquarters and stud plant projects that were completed in 2013. 

Those projects included constructing a $3.6 million, 24,000-square-foot, two-story office building and a connected $5.7 million, 113,600-square-foot manufacturing building. CWallA Building Materials Co. occupies warehouse space along with Scafco Steel Manufacturing. 

The next warehouse building was constructed in 2014 at 301 N. Haven, east of Scafco’s headquarters. It has a total of 71,000 square feet of space, according to Playfair Commerce Park’s most recent site plan map.

AMI Metals Inc., a full-service cut-to-size metal service company for the aerospace industry, occupies the majority of the warehouse space, site plans show.

AMI, with corporate offices based in Brentwood, Tenn., has offices and warehouse space throughout the U.S. and Europe. The other tenant is Thomasville, Ga.-based Flowers Foods Inc., say site plans.

The third warehouse building, constructed in 2015 at 2500 E. Ferry, has a total of 64,000 square feet and is occupied by ADI Global Distribution, Airefco Inc., and IDI Distributors Inc., according to site plans.

ADI, with more than 200 locations around the world, is a global wholesale distributor of security and low voltage products. Airefco, a supplier of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) parts and supplies, is based in Tualatin, Ore. IDI, an insulation distribution company, has more than 40 locations around the U.S.

Construction on a fourth warehouse building at the park—it’s scheduled to be a 52,000-square-foot structure—started last October and hasn’t been completed yet.