Spokane developer Ron Wells says financing is coming together for acquiring and converting the long-shuttered Ridpath Hotel complex into downtown housing.

With final loan approval appearing close at hand, work on the $22 million project could start as early as next month, claims Wells, a principal at Wells Group LLC, an urban architecture and real estate redevelopment concern, which designed the planned historic renovation project for the Ridpath.

Wells also is a principal in Ridpath Club Apartments LLC and Ridpath Penthouse LLC, which for a number of years now have been consolidating fractured ownership in the Ridpath complex at 515 W. Sprague.

The hotel had been divided into about two dozen parcels, many of which were sold to separate owners before and after the hotel closed in 2008.

“We’re ready to start construction the day the loan closes,” Wells says, adding that he expects to complete the acquisition of parts of the tower next month.

“Maybe I shouldn’t guess a date,” he cautions. “I’ve been wrong too many times.”

Meantime, Ridpath Club Apartments has submitted to the city a building permit application for the renovation project.

Wells plans to redevelop hotel rooms on the second through 11th stories of the Ridpath tower into the Ridpath Club Apartments. Including the attached east annex, which is known as the “Y” building, at the southwest corner of First Avenue and Stevens Street, the Ridpath Club Apartments would have 206 living units.

Baker Construction & Development Inc. is the contractor on the project, and the Spokane office of Coeur d’Alene-based Trindera Engineering Inc. is supplying engineering services.

The apartment project includes 110 one-bedroom micro-apartments, 54 one-bedroom units, and one two-bedroom unit. All units would range in size from 250 to 1,000 square feet of living space.

The project financing relies on three lenders, Wells says. The primary lender in New York has committed to an $8.1 million loan, and Wells says he anticipates secondary loans from the city of Spokane and the Washington State Housing Finance Commission.

The city currently is in the process of approving a $1.75 million loan, after voting last year to support Wells’ workforce housing plans over a competing proposal to redevelop the Ridpath as a hotel and entertainment venue, he asserts.

The Housing Finance Commission will hold a public hearing next week in Seattle and is expected to approve a $2 million loan and also grant final approval of up to $10 million in multifamily revenue bonds and tax credits, Wells says.

To qualify for the tax incentives, most of the apartment units will be reserved for tenants who earn less than 60 percent of the annual median area income, which is $27,120 for a one-person household in Spokane County.

“That’s a wide swath of Spokane that includes a lot of people who work downtown or want to work downtown,” Wells says.

He describes Ridpath Club Apartments as workforce housing rather than low-income housing.

“The apartments will only be rented to people with clear credit histories and criminal background checks,” he says. “One person must be making at least $20,000 a year—somebody who gets up every day and goes to work.”

Separately, Ridpath Penthouse LLC is developing the top two stories of the 13-story Ridpath tower into three large luxury condominiums.