Lee Carney, principal and general manager at Turning Leaf Townhomes extended-stay lodging on Spokane’s North Side, says the facility is now fully operational after two years of room-by-room rehabilitation of the former Solar World Estates complex.

Turning Leaf Furnished Townhomes LLC acquired the property in 2013 for $860,000 and has since invested another $800,000 in updates and improvements, Carney says.

“We bought it out of bankruptcy and fixed it back up,” he says. “There’s nothing that hasn’t been touched by the rehab.”

Turning Leaf has 32 units. Each unit has 535 square feet of living space with vaulted ceilings, designated living rooms, loft bedrooms, and kitchenettes stocked with dishes and utensils.

“It has everything a hotel room has and many things bigger hotels don’t have,” Carney asserts while comparing a Turning Leaf unit to a typical hotel suite. “It’s a little bit quieter, and the living area is a little bit bigger.”

Turning Leaf amenities also include high-definition TVs with premium cable service, high-speed internet and Wi-Fi, laundry rooms, and membership in a nearby gym.

“It’s homey and about the same price as a hotel,” Carney says, adding that monthly rates are lower than most hotel rates. “It’s engineered that way because we want people to stay longer.”

Turning Leaf’s target market includes people traveling here for jobs or corporate training and people who plan to move here or are having a home built.

Guests also include traveling nurses, physicians, and patients receiving extended medical treatments, he says.

During long-term stays, guests receive housecleaning services every third day.

“We just started marketing Turning Leaf,” he says. “The last 2 1/2 years, we haven’t been marketing it, because we’ve always been rehabbing. This will be the first summer of non-rehabbing.”

Even so, available units were 100 percent occupied for most of the peak season last summer, he says.

Carney also operates Maple Leaf Manor Furnished Apartments, which is another extended-stay complex at 1702 W. Dean. Maple Leaf has four 735-square-foot, two-bedroom units.

The Maple Leaf structure also had to be rehabilitated when Maple Leaf Manor Furnished Apartments LLC acquired it a few years ago, Carney says.

The minimum stay at Turning Leaf is two nights and the minimum stay at Maple Leaf is five nights.

The average length of stay is 27 days, he says.

Carney, a former banker who founded Mountain Capital LLC here in 2007, says he has learned some of the aspects of the lodging business as a commercial lender.

“We sometimes make loans on hotels,” he says. “I knew the numbers side of the business, and I’m learning the employment side of it.”

Turning Leaf fluctuates between six and eight employees, he says.