A Washington state agency has leased a sizable space on the fifth floor of the River View Corporate Center, the big Class A office building in Spokane Valley developed by Worthy Enterprises LLC.

Jack Marr, director of leasing at Worthy Enterprises, says the Office of Administrative Hearings recently signed a lease for 11,000 square feet of space on the 52,000-square-foot floor and plans to move its Spokane operations there by early November.

The state agency currently has offices in Old City Hall building, at 221 N. Wall downtown, where it leases 9,800 square feet.

As one of its major duties, the Office of Administrative Hearings acts as an independent agency to decide whether people are eligible for unemployment benefits when they appeal decisions made by the state Employment Security Department.

The agency also hears administrative appeal cases involving about 30 other state agencies, including the state Department of Social and Health Services for appeals of decisions involving public assistance and child support cases. Other examples of cases heard are ones for the state Liquor Control Board and the Department of Labor & Industries.

An administrative law judge presides over individual case hearings and then sends a written decision to the person who filed the appeal, an agency website says.

The Spokane office for the state agency employs 43 people full time, including administrative judges and support employees, says Stephanie Croom-Williams, an Olympia-based agency spokeswoman.

Croom-Williams says the agency has outgrown the space it's currently leasing in downtown and needs more space for judges' offices and to hold hearings.

A city of Spokane Valley building permit for tenant improvements lists a $55,000 project cost at River View for upgrades on the fifth floor.

The five-story, roughly 250,000-square-foot River View Corporate Center is about 60 percent occupied by various tenants, Marr says.