The city of Spokane Valley is in the process of selecting an architect to design its envisioned new City Hall, and it hopes to have the $14 million project completed in about 14 months, says Mike Jackson, Spokane Valley city administrator.

The Spokane City Council last month approved the $1.13 million purchase of 3.4 acres of land at the former University City mall, at the southeast corner of Sprague Avenue and Dartmouth Road.

Jackson expected the transaction to close earlier this week.

Four design firms have responded to the city’s call for qualifications to design the project, and one likely will be chosen within the next few weeks, Jackson says.

The project will be funded through the city’s Capital Reserve Fund, its Civic Facilities Fund, and bond financing, he says.

“The city has $6 million in cash and plans to issue $8 million in bonds,” Jackson says.

Spokane Valley City Hall currently is located in the Redwood Plaza, at 11707 E. Sprague, about a mile east of the U-City site. There, the city leases 30,000 square feet of office space at an annual rate approaching $435,000, he says.

Jackson says the city plans to complete the construction project without asking taxpayers for any additional funding.

“We’ll really be exchanging lease payments for bond payments,” he says. “The intent is to design and start construction so we can move into the building by March of 2017.” 

That’s when Spokane Valley’s lease at the Redwood Plaza expires, he says.

All Spokane Valley departments currently housed in multiple buildings in the Redwood Plaza will be under one roof at the new location, Jackson says, adding that about 80 Spokane Valley city employees are based at Redwood Plaza.

The city has conducted a space study that has determined an appropriate size for a stand-alone City Hall would be up to 50,000 square feet, he says.

“We’re planning on building to accommodate staff and some future growth,” Jackson says. “We’re trying to be careful about how much to plan for future growth, because, where do you stop?”

He says the city plans to continue operating with a lean staff and contracting out major services, including law enforcement, solid waste, construction services, animal control, and some maintenance.

The city’s police department will remain at 12710 E. Sprague, Jackson says.

“We already own the Valley precinct building and will continue to use it to house the police department, which is contracted through the Spokane County Sheriff,” he says.

Other departments that will remain off the City Hall campus will be the city’s parks and recreation department, which is based at the CenterPlace Regional Event Center, at 2426 N. Discovery Place, and the public works maintenance shop, at Flora Road and Euclid Avenue.

The project site for the new City Hall includes the parking lot to the north of the building once occupied by The Crescent department store.

As part of the purchase agreement, the seller, Dartmouth LLC, which is headed by Coeur d’Alene-based attorney H. James Magnuson, has agreed to demolish by August the ramp, parking structure, and some of the vacant structure that connects the former Crescent building, at 10220 E. Sprague, and the former J.C. Penney building, at 10304 E. Sprague.

The U-City J.C. Penney outlet closed in 1997.

The Crescent department store, which was founded in Spokane in 1889 and had three Spokane-area stores at its peak, changed hands in 1988. While operating as Frederick & Nelson, its parent company shut down in 1992.

Jackson says adding a new City Hall on one section of the old U-City mall site and removing obsolete structures from a nearby portion could promote redevelopment there.

“One of the reasons we’re attracted to this site is we hope it revitalizes the area,” he says.

Under the current vision, Spokane Valley’s new City Hall would be similar in size and location to at least one earlier proposal that was part of a farther-reaching concept to create a new city center.

The city center concept was part of the now defunct Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan, which was made part of the Spokane Valley’s land-use code in 2009.

SARP’s land-use restrictions drew opposition from business owners and commercial property owners along the couplet, as well as from commuters who used it as a freeway alternative.

In the fall of the following year, the city elected new council members who opposed SARP, and the new council repealed SARP in 2011.

Spokane Valley Mayor Dean Grafos, a vocal opponent of SARP, asserts redevelopment is occurring through free enterprise rather than a restrictive master plan.

“Through the marketplace—even through the recession—Sprague and Appleway are redeveloping,” Grafos says.

He says the University City LLC, another Magnuson-owned company, has redeveloped the eastern portion of the shopping center, where current tenants include the Spokane Valley Event Center and Darcy’s Restaurant & Spirits.

Just east of the shopping center, across University Road, Spokane Valley Tech and Dishman Hills High School occupy the 52,000-square-foot former Rite Aid structure that had been long vacant.

Recent and ongoing city improvements also likely will promote economic growth, Grafos says, adding that the city’s street program has improved all of Sprague and most of Appleway Boulevard in the U-City area, including adding street trees and swales along Sprague.

A second phase of work has begun on the Appleway Trail that will extend the bike and pedestrian path from University Road to Pines Road, he says.

A third phase of the trail is being planned to connect to Balfour Park, which the city also plans to expand, about a block north of the planned City Hall site.

Separately, the Spokane County Library District hopes to construct a new Valley branch building on a site next to Balfour Park, just across Sprague from the planned City Hall site, if voters approve a funding measure it plans to put forth, likely in August.

“I think this will further enhance that area and bring in more business,” Grafos says, of the envisioned City Hall.

The project will increase infrastructure for the community at no additional cost, he says. “It will be permanent building versus a lease payment.”