Even as hundreds of new apartments are set to come online, vacancy rates remain low, and rents are edging upward, meaning development of rental housing isn’t likely to slow down any time soon, some professionals involved in the construction industry say.

Multifamily projects with a total of 1,240 apartment units, valued at more than $130 million combined, are in some stage of permitting or construction in Spokane and Kootenai counties.

Affiliates of Liberty Lake-based real estate development company Greenstone Corp. recently obtained permits for two apartment complexes in the Kendall Yards development north of downtown.

One project is the $15 million, Highline Phase V complex, which will include 137 living units in seven buildings to be erected at 528 N. Cedar, says Greenstone CEO Jim Frank.

“We’re developing a mixed-use component by providing housing adjacent to the town center,” he says.

Continental Contractors Inc., of Nine Mile Falls, is the contractor on the Highline V project, which Greenstone designed in-house.

The other Kendall Yards project is a $5.2 million, 24-unit, three-story, luxury apartment building to be constructed at the southwest corner of Summit Parkway and Elm Street.

Continental Contractors Inc. also, is the contractor on that project, and Shoesmith Cox Architects PLLC, of Seattle, designed it.

The project originally was proposed as Elm Street Condos.

Frank says he remains optimistic about the housing market, both rental and single-family homes.

“Employment growth in Spokane is fairly strong,” he says. “There’s a fair amount of in-migration being driven by new jobs.”

He says Spokane is affordable compared with most other markets, which also helps attract job creators here.

He says also that a growing number of empty nesters are deciding to rent rather than own, causing a shift in the market.

On the younger end of the market, the millennial generation has tended to delay family formation, and they’re renting longer, he says.

“There’s a higher percentage of people renting than there was 10 years ago,” he says. “That’s created a strong demand for (multifamily) housing.”

Frank says Kendall Yards will have more than 300 rental units when the Elm Street and Highline V projects are completed.

Greenstone affiliates have constructed more than 200 single-family homes in Kendall Yards and more than 100 are in development.

“It’s essentially 100 percent occupied with a waiting list for single-family homes, and fully occupied on rental units,” he says. 

On the South Hill, Baker Construction & Development Inc., of Spokane, is considering plans to construct a $1.8 million, 16-unit apartment project at 2814 E. 31st Avenue. The units would be in a pair of two-level buildings.

Baker Construction also will wrap up construction this summer on the $10 million, 61-unit student apartment project at 940 N. Division. 

In Spokane Valley, developer William J. Lawson has obtained permits recently to construct the $17.9 million, 184-unit Granit Pointe III apartment complex at 2410 N. Pines.

A&A Construction is the contractor on that project.

In a project proposed on the Moran Prairie, Mercier Architecture & Planning, of Spokane, has applied for permits to construct a $9.3 million, 72-unit apartment complex at 5805 S. Ben Burr Road, on the Moran Prairie.

The project, which would have a dozen six-unit buildings, would be developed on land owned by Dave Black Properties at the southeast corner of 57th Avenue and Ben Burr Road.

Viki Mundlin, a Coeur d’Alene-based senior managing director at Valbridge Property Advisors|Auble, Jolicoeur & Gentry Inc., says the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene apartment market is absorbing the apartment developments almost as quickly as they come online.

“All new product is leasing up strongly with few, if any, concessions being offered,” Mundlin says.

Rental rates are trending upward with the new facilities, she says. “Now we’re seeing apartments performing at higher rents than we’ve ever seen.”

Mundlin says investors are looking actively for apartment properties.

“There’s a lot of competition when a project site comes available for sale,” she says. “It’s driving values up and pushing people to complete more projects.”

Valbridge’s apartment market surveys are showing vacancy rates at below 5 percent.

“As long as there is less than 5 percent vacancy, we will see new projects being built,” Mundlin says.

She adds, however, that she suspects vacancies in some older projects are above 5 percent.

“If any are affected, it might be some of the older projects that aren’t as well-maintained,” she says.

A spate of building permit applications for apartment projects are in the works in the city of Post Falls.

•TCA Holding, has obtained permits to build The Villas, a $4.8 million, 84-unit, seven-building project to be located on north Charleville Road, in the Tullamore Commons area of northeast Post Falls.

•Pointe Apartments LLC, an affiliate of Hayden-based affordable apartment developer Whitewater Creek Inc., of Hayden, recently has bought a 5-acre parcel of land on Beck Road within the Pointe at Post Falls development for a planned 75-unit apartment project.

*Coeur d’Alene developer Thomas Anderl is proposing River City Villas, a 32-unit rental complex that would be located on the west side of Corbin Road, between Seltice Way and Interstate 90 in west Post Falls.

•Rudeen Developments LLC, of Liberty Lake, is developing the 96-unit Bel Cielo apartment complex near the southeast corner of state Route 41 and 16th Avenue, in north Post Falls.

Previously reported projects currently under construction include:

•Northwood Heights Apartments, a $13.1 million, 107-unit complex at 9118 E. Columbia Drive. Rudeen Developments is the contractor on that project.

•Blue Point Apartments, a $9.9 million, 99-unit complex under construction at 15011 N. Wandermere Road, is another Rudeen project.

•Diamond Rock Construction, of Spokane Valley is developing Bella Tess, a $17.5 million, 252-unit apartment complex at 17016 E. Indiana Parkway, in Spokane Valley.

*Viking Construction Inc., of Hayden, is developing the $6 million, 72-unit first phase of a planned 208-unit apartment complex near the northeast corner of Syringa Street and Poleline Avenue in the Fieldstone master-planned community in north Post Falls.

•Spokane real estate developers Jeff Johnson and Jeff McCloskey, are constructing a $7.2 million, 72-unit apartment complex in Cheney, at 1030 W. First. McCloskey Construction Inc. is the contractor on the project.

•Whitewater Creek is developing the $12.3 million, 114-unit Palouse Trails low-income apartment project at 5000 S. Palouse Highway.

•Spokane-based Community Frameworks is developing a $7.6 million, 33-unit, low-income apartment project at 315 W. Mission. Kop Construction Co., of Spokane, is the contractor on the project, and ZBA Architecture PS, of Spokane, designed it.

•Catholic Charities of Spokane and Volunteers of America Eastern Washington are completing adjacent apartment projects with a total of 102 living units targeted toward housing the chronically homeless, at 202 E. Short, and 223 E. Second. Inland Washington LLC, of Spokane is the contractor on both projects, which have a combined value of $10 million, and Nystrom+Olson Architecture, also of Spokane, designed them.

•Catholic Charities’ upcoming multifamily projects include Father Bach III, a $10.3 million, 51-unit project planned at 24 W. Second and Pope Francis Haven, an $8.5 million, 52-unit project for homeless families planned at the northeast corner of Sprague Avenue and Conklin Road, in Spokane Valley.