The Spokane office of Las Vegas-based Burke Construction Group Inc. has started work on a $12.8 million project to build a new transportation maintenance facility for the Bellevue School District.

Matt Boyd, a Spokane-based Burke Construction vice president and division manager, says seven employees from the Spokane office are working on the project, which will involve erecting a 30,000-square-foot, two-level building on a 6-acre site. Bellevue-based Sierra-Martin Architects designed the structure.

The contractor will erect the building a 12035 NE Fifth in Bellevue, just southwest of a more than 35-year-old maintenance structure that it will demolish once the new facility is operational, Boyd says. The multiphase project is expected to be finished by September 2014.

The new structure has been designed to meet Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) industry standards and will have a geothermal heating system, solar paneling, and will be constructed using some recycled building materials, Boyd says.

The building is being built into a hillside, so the second floor will be ground-level space, he says. That level will include transportation administrative offices and a garage area for servicing up to 12 vehicles at a time, he says.

Boyd adds that the first floor is designed to include a main lobby and bus driver lounge areas. The new facility won't actually store the district's vehicles, he says. Those buses, vans, cars, and maintenance trucks are parked in a nearby lot unless maintenance is required.

Burke Construction also will construct a parking lot with about 130 employee parking spaces.

Boyd estimates that the maintenance building that's scheduled to be demolished has about 15,000 square feet of floor space.