Potential Sites For Regional Business Center Narrowed To Five Finalists

The Davenport Hotel, a sentimental favorite, apparently is out of the running as a site to house Spokane’s major business development institutions in a combined center.

Projects at five different sites have been named as finalists in the competition to create a proposed new home for the chamber of commerce, economic development council, and convention and visitors bureau. The agencies presently occupy separate quarters.

The finalists reportedly are:

The Grant Building on the northwest corner of Riverside and Post.

The former West One Bank Building on the southwest corner of Riverside and Post. Its main floor has been vacant several months.

The former downtown Lamonts Building, at the northeast corner of Riverside and Wall. It, too, has long been vacant.

A site in the southeast quadrant of Division and Spokane Falls Boulevard that is owned by the Joint Center for Higher Education.

And a tract of raw land on the north bank of the downtown riverfront west of Division, between Pier One Imports and the IBM Building.

Said Dave Guthrie of Pacific Securities Co., owner of the north bank site, “The plans for our proposed project are very exciting.

“We believe we can better showcase the business institutions of the community by showing off the riverfront, the park-like surroundings, the natural beauty at this site.”

Capitalizing on these assets, the design reserves space for a dock on the water with, in an artist’s rendering, a boat out front. The shorelines permitting process hasn’t caught up yet with the conceptual layout, Guthrie said, “But we wanted to take this opportunity to introduce in our project the first leg of what we envision may one day be an extensive Spokane River taxi system.

“Foreseeably, fleets of water taxis will take convention delegates, business visitors, and sightseers of all sorts to attractions all along the downtown riverfront and upriver as well.”

Guthrie said that while his company wants to be the winner of the competition, “I’m sure we have a lot of outstanding competition in the other finalists.”

The former West One Bank Building is a handsome structure that has basement parking. It is managed by Keimle & Hagood Co.

The Grant Building has access to a parking garage. The property manager is Goodale & Barbieri.

Al Payne of Payne Properties and Development, principal owner of the former Lamonts store building, said he is heartened by selection of so many sites within the heart of the central core.

Payne said he was informed by a task force charged with pursuing proposed development of a so-called Spokane Regional Business Center that a review of the finalists’ proposals is scheduled by the involved business institutions in March. A final decision is expected in May.

Chamber picks Broom for top post

The late Ron Broom, associate editor and chief editorial writer of the now-defunct Spokane Daily Chronicle, would be proud. His son, attorney David L. Broom, is slated to be installed chairman of the board of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce at the 100th annual meeting in September.

The newly elected vice chairman and chairman-elect is managing partner of Paine Hamlen Coffin Brooke & Miller, a law firm whose lineage can be traced back to charter membership in the chamber upon its founding Aug. 30, 1897.

Seafirst offers cut-rate disaster loans

Seafirst Bank is offering cut-rate disaster loans to people and small businesses clobbered by the winter’s storms.

“Now that you’ve had a chance to check out the damage you suffered, you might want to check out these rates,” says Dennis Veter, vice president and senior district account executive in Spokane. The program includes:

Unsecured loans of $1,000 to $7,500 at 7.5 percent annual percentage rate (APR).

Home equity loans of $7,500 to $25,000 at 6.5 percent APR.

A home equity line of $5,000 to $25,000 at the T-Bill rate plus 4 percent.

Equity loans for owners of manufactured homes of $7,500 to $25,000 at 6.5 percent.

Applicants must fill out a letter indicating the type and amount of damage sustained. Loan payments are automatically paid from a Seafirst checking account that may be secured at the time of the application. Applicants also must qualify under the bank’s standard credit criteria. The offer expires Feb. 14.

As part of its storm relief program, the bank is deferring payment on existing small business loans up to 90 days and increasing existing small business lines of credit as much as 20 percent of the current credit amount up to $100,000.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes a notes column each Wednesday. If you have business items of regional interest for future columns, call 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review