The Spokane office of Denver-based international engineering and construction company CH2MHill Inc. has leased all 6,000 square feet of space on the fifth floor of the Spokesman-Review building at 999 W. Riverside downtown. 

The company moved into its new offices in late June, says Roger Flint, vice president and area manager for CH2MHill.This is the first time an entire floor of the Spokesman-Review building has been leased to an outside tenant, Flint asserts.

Flint says the company decided to vacate its former 11,000-square-foot space in the Washington Trust Bank Building, at 717 W. Sprague downtown, after five years because it wanted to downsize to a smaller space. 

“Our work has kind of changed over time,” Flint says. “So before, even five years ago, our field employees would do work out in the field and then come back to the office to do field notes. Now, they take laptops with them and do it out in the field, so we don’t need space for every single person who works for us.”

The company employs about 55 people in Spokane, Flint says, 30 at its downtown location and the remainder in an office at 1004 N. Freya, in East Spokane. 

“The number of people who need to be in the downtown office is much less … but it’s still important for us to stay downtown,” Flint says. 

CH2MHill looked at a number of properties before settling on the Spokesman-Review building, Flint says. 

“We looked at the U.S. Bank building, looked at the Chronicle building, and the Spokesman-Review building,” Flint says. “They were all in the same kind of price range and square footage size. This one had some cool features; it’s unique with the historic nature of the building.”

Flint says CH2MHill had some minor remodeling done to the space as part of its leasing contract with Cowles Co. 

Cowles Co., which owns the Spokesman-Review, the Journal of Business, KHQ-TV, and other companies, began in recent years to consolidate some of its operations in the Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle buildings. In 2012, the company was offering for lease a total of 28,000 square feet between the two buildings. 

Founded in Corvallis, Ore. in 1946, CH2MHill employs more than 26,000 people on six continents and specializes in consulting, design, design-build, and program management construction. It has 111 locations throughout the United States, and four in Washington state.