The U.S. General Services Administration says construction will start this month on a 20,300-square-foot building on the West Plains that the agency plans to lease from private developers to house a military unit that processes recruits here.

The Spokane Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) will be the sole occupant of the building, which is to be called Pillar Rock Plaza, at 8510 U.S. Highway 2, says Ross Buffington, a GSA spokesman at the agency's Northwest-Arctic Region office in Auburn, Wash. The structure is to be built on a vacant parcel of land on the north side of U.S. Highway 2, across the highway from the Pacific Northwest Technology Park, near Airway Heights. The Spokane MEPS plans to move there from downtown Spokane on Jan. 1, Buffington says.

Kathy Cummings, a project coordinator for Spokane County, says the planning and building department is processing a grading permit for the project site and expects to receive a building-permit application for the structure within a week. Cummings estimates the project's value at about $2.4 million, based on the planned building's size.

Baker Construction & Development Inc., of Spokane, is the contractor on the project, and Wolfe Architectural Group PS, of Spokane, designed it. The owners and developers of the project are listed as GJ LLC, of Spokane, and Campus Group LLC, of Olympia, Cummings says. Greg Jeffreys, who heads GJ LLC, couldn't be reached for comment.

The Spokane MEPS currently occupies 26,000 square feet of space on the second floor of the Thomas S. Foley U.S. Courthouse, at 920 W. Riverside. Buffington says 39 people, including 11 civilians, work at the station here, and the staffing level will remain the same at the West Plains location.

The MEPS move will make room in the courthouse for the U.S. Marshals Service, which plans to expand into that space. Coinciding with the agency moves, GSA is planning a $33 million construction project to upgrade mechanical, electrical, and control systems in the courthouse. That work is expected to start this fall.

The Spokane MEPS was one of the original tenants in the courthouse when it opened in 1967, Buffington says.

It's one of 65 MEPS facilities throughout the U.S. that put recruits through a series of physical, medical, and psychological tests to ensure they meet standards required to serve in the armed forces. MEPS personnel also conduct background checks, provide service counseling, and negotiate enlistment contracts.

Last year, the Spokane MEPS processed 3,354 enlistment tests. It also administered 6,800 armed services vocational aptitude tests at the region's high schools, Buffington says.