Dania Furniture is updating the four-story building in downtown Spokane that it has occupied for about 25 years, says Patty Codd-O'Neill, store manager.

The renovation project will open up additional retail space, while also preserving much of the historic character of the 99-year-old, 55,000-square-foot structure located at 319 W. Riverside, Codd-O'Neill says. Work on the project began about two months ago and is expected to take six months to a year to complete, she says.

Jerry Shogan Architect, of Colbert, is the architect on the project, and Walker Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor.

"They're trying to preserve whatever they can. They have to do a lot of work on the foundation. That's what they're doing right now," Codd-O'Neill says.

She says she doesn't know what the overall project will cost, but a city permit application estimates the value of the structural repair work at $300,000.

Improvements also will include refurbishing or replacing some hardwood flooring, installing a new elevator, and rebuilding bathrooms on the main floor and adding bathrooms on the second, third, and fourth floors, Codd-O'Neill says.

"They're building the elevator off-site, and they're going to put it in with a crane through the roof," she says.

Dania probably will close the building's basement, which currently serves as a clearance area, and will convert about two-thirds of the second floor, which currently is used for storage, into retail showroom space, Codd-O'Neill says.

Plans also call for modifying the fourth floor, which never has been opened up formally, for product display use, she says. Work there will include eliminating partition walls and using exposed beams and brick walls to give the floor an open, loft-like aesthetic feel similar to the building's third floor, she says.

The Dania store here currently employs seven people, but Codd-O'Neill, who has worked at the store for 14 years and has managed it for three years, says, "Once we open up those other floors, we'll be hiring more."

Dania Furniture is known for its emphasis on contemporary Scandinavian, or Danish Modern, furniture offerings and is one of three furniture store chains, totaling more than 40 outlets nationwide, owned by Norwegian native Earling Eide, of Petaluma, Calif., and operated through parent company Interline Co., Codd-O'Neill says.

The Dania Furniture chain includes a total of 15 stores, six of them in Washington and the rest in Oregon, Nevada, Minnesota, and Illinois.