Washington State University Spokane plans to break ground in the spring for the planned $15 million Spokane Teaching Health Center’s University District Health Clinic, says WSU spokeswoman Terren Roloff.

The university last month approved schematic designs for the two-story, 42,000-square-foot clinic building that’s to be located on the southeast edge of the Riverpoint Campus, at the former site of a Peirone Produce Co. warehouse.

Also last month, WSU Spokane submitted a predevelopment application to the city of Spokane, entering the project in the city’s planning process. The university earlier had said it expects to demolish the former warehouse at the planned construction site as early as this month.

Bouten Construction Co., of Spokane, will be the contractor on the clinic project, and NAC|Architecture, also of Spokane, is designing it.

The clinic is expected to open in 2016, Roloff says.

The Spokane Teaching Health Center, a consortium made up of WSU Spokane, Empire Health Foundation, and Providence Health Care, is spearheading the project, which is aimed at creating more physician residency and medical staff positions here.

WSU Spokane also plans this spring to construct a temporary parking lot at a site where four structures recently were demolished at the northeast corner of Spokane Falls Boulevard and Pines Street, Roloff says.

The removal of the vacant and obsolete warehouse buildings is the first step toward future development of the property, she says.