Sifting through the Rookery Block rubble

I sat in the Spokane City Council chambers Monday evening and looked around the room at the more than 100 individuals who had come to support and testify in favor of Council President Dennis Hession’s proposal for the city to intervene in saving the Rookery and Mohawk buildings. What an impressive variety of people – a past congressional candidate, ex-mayor, ex-state senator, local developers, a representative from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, retirees, architects, planners, lawyers, doctors, students, neighborhood representatives, and homeless people – all looking for leadership from the city to save these buildings.

This issue is more than saving two beautiful old buildings that are a centerpiece for downtown. This is an effort to avoid the “dead zone” and crime that surface parking can create, and to continue the economic revitalization that has been taking place downtown for five years. Rehabilitation would include condos, apartments and ground-floor retail which would add to the city’s tax base, and certainly offset any temporary costs to the city.

Several misleading comments made at the meeting require clarification:

•This proposal is not another River Park Square garage. Hession’s proposal is entirely different than the RPS arrangement of a public/private partnership.

•Spokane Preservation Advocates specifically hired attorney Steve Eugster to oversee the formulation of this proposal because he was an opponent of the RPS deal and few know that issue better than he. He would know what the city should not do when formulating this agreement. There is nearly no risk.

•RPS involved tens of millions of dollars; the city would purchase the Rookery for $4.7 million.

•RPS was a long-term subsidy to a private developer. The Rookery proposal is a temporary loan, immediately reselling to a developer.

•The money would be borrowed from a Superfund trust fund, which cannot be used to pay for municipal services such as police or fire personnel.

•A healthier tax base provided by redevelopment of the Rookery Block would help provide money for municipal services.

•Promoting economic development is a perfectly legitimate function of city government, especially if it increases tax revenues and prevents blight.

•Surface parking lots do not provide a tax base; they are the lowest-taxed land use in the city, which is why many people choose to demolish their buildings rather than spend money on maintenance and rehabilitation.

•The reason the developer has not already purchased the property, even though it has been on the market for over a year, is because he has made three viable offers only to be met with a change of terms by the seller at the time of signing. Investors using money generated from a 1031 exchange require a set price and closing date.

•If Ron Wells and other developers did not think this project could “pencil out” they would not be involved with it.

•Hession, an attorney, wrote this proposal and is confident with it. He has structured it carefully and it is totally transparent.

•The buildings are not in poor condition because of a small fire or neglected roofs. They have concrete super-structures and floors, and structural engineers have proclaimed them perfectly sound.

•We already have an unhealthy percentage of surface parking lots downtown. What a horrible waste of valuable urban land. Imagine another gaping hole in the “wall” of buildings and streetscape along Riverside Avenue providing no continuity between the east and west ends. It would be unwelcoming to both residents and visitors.

•The Rookery and Mohawk are prime examples of architecture from the eras when they were built. The intricate Art Deco terra cotta panels of the Rookery Building, once smashed and hauled to a landfill, will never be replaced with anything comparable.

•Spokane has lost many of its finest buildings to demolition. The people of Spokane deserve better.

Spokane Preservation Advocates has been behind saving these buildings for over a year. And although I am a preservationist, I support this effort not as much for the buildings as for my son and all the young people and others who deserve a vital and beautiful downtown.