Womer & Associates, a Spokane-based, Native American-owned architectural and engineering firm, says it has moved downtown as part of an effort to raise its visibility and has merged with a Spokane Valley fire-protection consulting company.

The firm has leased a total of about 8,000 square feet of office space on the sixth floor of Old City Hall, at 221 N. Wall, and has relocated there from 1819 E. Springfield, says marketing manager Nima Motahari, who also is a senior project manager at the firm.

"What we really want to do is be one of the premier Native American design firms," Motahari says, adding that a prominent downtown location will help elevate its image among current and potential clients.

Also, he says the firm has merged with Creighton Engineering Inc., which specializes in fire-protection design services and—like Womer & Associates—works a lot with clients outside of the Inland Northwest. That firm's four employees continue for now to occupy office space at 210 N. University Road, but likely will move into part of Womer's downtown space in about a month, he says.

Motahari declines to discuss the terms of the transaction. However, he says Creighton founder Scott Creighton and the company's employees will become employees of Womer & Associates, and the Creighton Engineering business name likely will be dropped at some point.

The absorption of the Creighton operation will boost Womer & Associates to 34 employees and will give it in-house expertise that complements its other design services, while also culminating a longtime close professional relationship, Motahari says.

"We've been working with them for so long, it's almost like a family," he says, adding that the joining of the two businesses has been in the works for some time.

Scott Creighton, who founded Creighton Engineering here in 1987, claims the merger will create the first firm here to offer in-house fire-protection expertise in addition to the standard mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, or MEP, engineering services. He says it also could prove beneficial in garnering government contracts.

Womer & Associates designed a recently completed $8 million new administration building for the Nisqually Tribe, southeast of Olympia, in Western Washington and is working on the design for a remodel of the tribe's old administration building.

It also is or recently has been working on a number of projects for other tribes, including convenience stores for the Colville and Nez Perce tribes, a senior center for the Spokane Tribe in Wellpinit, a planned elder center for the Kalispel Tribe in Usk, and a community center and administrative building for the Arlington, Wash.-based Stillaguamish Tribe.

Motahari says the firm went through a period of softer revenues during the recession, but that business now is improving, albeit slowly.

"We're very fortunate. We've got a lot of new clients," while also continuing to work on additional projects for prior clients, he says.

Founded here in 1992, Womer & Associates bought the assets of longtime Spokane structural engineering company Atwood-Hinzman Inc. about eight years ago. It moved soon thereafter into the former Atwood-Hinzman building on Springfield, from quarters a few blocks away at 723 N. Crestline.

Motahari says the firm continues to do a lot of structural engineering work, along with civil and other types of engineering, while also providing architectural and planning services. He says its architectural and engineering departments now are roughly equal in size.

The firm's principals include William R. Womer, who is a member of the Colville Tribe; Robert E. Smith; and Rick Mathews, who is a member of the Spokane Tribe.

Jim Moore, Spokane-based property manager for San Antonio-based Cotter Ranch Properties, which owns Old City Hall, handled Womer & Associates' lease of its new space there, Motahari says.