Developers of the long-planned Clare View senior housing complex have obtained building permits to construct 61 apartment units in five buildings on the South Hill, says Dave Roberts, senior developer at Spokane Housing Ventures.

The $20 million project, to be located at 3146 E. 44th just east of a Shopko outlet, also will include constructing a community building to serve the apartment complex, and rehabilitating the nearby 124-unit Clare House Apartments complex, at 4827 E. Palouse Highway, Roberts says.

He says he expects construction to begin as early as December, and to be completed about a year later.

Whitewater Creek Inc., of Hayden, is the contractor on the project; ZBA Architecture PS, of Spokane, designed it; and the Spokane office of Tacoma-based AHBL Inc., is the civil engineer.

At Clare View, the largest structure will be a two-story, 41,700-square-foot building with 38 two-bedroom rental units and two one-bedroom units, Roberts says.

Four smaller one-story buildings will range in size from 3,600 square feet to 4,500 square feet of total floor space and will have a total of 21 two-bedroom units.

Spokane Housing Ventures is a nonprofit that develops and manages housing it rents to families with low incomes or special housing needs. The organization owns or manages more than 750 low-income rental units in Spokane, and Stevens counties, including the 120-unit 55th Avenue Apartments, at 3323 E. 55th, and the 36-unit Bell Franklin apartments, at 224 N. Division.