The Spokane Tribe of Indians has cleared an initial hurdle that it needed to leap to begin negotiating the lease of city-owned land along the Spokane River just west of Riverfront Park where it wants to develop a large cultural center costing upwards of $6 million.

The tribe hasn't indicated, though, when it hopes to commence those talks or what it considers to be a likely timetable for construction of the cultural center, assuming it's able to obtain the necessary lease and building-permit approvals. Tribal representatives couldn't be reached immediately for comment on when the tribe might hope to build the center.

The Spokane Park Board approved on Sept. 9 a resolution authorizing city parks and recreation department representatives to engage in more detailed talks with the tribe regarding its proposal for the 1.1-acre site, known as the Bosch lot.

The site is located just northeast of the Monroe Street Bridge, stretching between Monroe and Lincoln streets north of Bridge Avenue, and is just west across Lincoln from the Anthony's at Spokane Falls restaurant. The city currently uses it as an unpaved commercial parking lot for Riverfront Park, adjacent businesses, and city-owned vehicles.

The Spokane Tribe's proposal was the only submittal the city parks and recreation department received in response to a formal request for proposals it issued to evaluate the potential for leasing and redevelopment of the site.

"We need to sit down with the tribe with a good template of a land lease and start talking about particulars," says Leroy Eadie, parks department director. He adds, though, that tribal representatives haven't contacted him yet to schedule a negotiating session, and he says neither side is in a hurry to get an agreement signed.

"We want to take our time and make sure we end up with a land lease that both parties are very comfortable with," Eadie says.

Among the city's concerns are how the tribe expects to finance the project and whether its proposed cultural center could generate revenue for the city equal to or more than the roughly $70,000 a year it gets currently from parking fees on the lot. Any lease agreement hammered out by park department and tribal negotiators still would need committee, Park Board, and City Council approval, Eadie says.

As currently envisioned, the cultural center would be a 33,000-square-foot building that would include various interpretive displays and exhibits and a 4,500-square-foot theater for multimedia and performing arts, and a 3,000-square-foot restaurant specializing in Northwest native foods. The building also would include a 1,250-square-foot gift shop specializing in tribal arts and crafts and about 3,000 square feet of administrative office space.

Additionally, the project would include a 3,000-square-foot outdoor performance area and landscaping that would blend aesthetically into Veterans Court, just to the south across Bridge Avenue.

The tribe has said it would finance the project through "a combination of funding sources which may include government-guaranteed loans, conventional financing, taxable bonds, and various public and private grant sources." It said it would use revenue from the facility's operation to pay lease, operating, and debt-related costs.

The proposed cultural center, though, isn't the only—or even the largest—Spokane-area development project that the tribe is working to put together. It announced last month that regulatory processing and site planning are continuing on schedule for a proposed 145-acre, mixed-use development—possibly including a large resort hotel and casino—on tribal-owned land just west of the city of Airway Heights.

Tribal Council Chairman Greg Abrahamson said the tribe is working closely with representatives of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to complete required paperwork to obtain all necessary approvals for the big project by mid-2011.

The tribe has estimated that project could cost into the hundreds of millions of dollars and would create more than 800 new jobs that would be filled mostly by Spokane-area residents.