Purchase of block is crucial, PFD says

The Spokane Public Facilities District intends to do everything within its power to purchase a city block south of the Convention Center, including asking the City Council to condemn the land if negotiations fail.

PFD board members and Executive Director Kevin Twohig said the district needs to acquire the city block bounded by Spokane Falls Boulevard, Main Avenue, Bernard and Washington streets to provide parking and future convention center expansion space. That’s despite the recent completion of the 100,000-square-foot Group Health Exhibit Hall, which is scheduled to hold its grand opening July 19.

“We’ve had a lot of inquiry about what we were going to do about parking because of the impact our facilities have had in that area,” Twohig said. As for the current expansion, he said, “Everybody we’re competing with is either currently expanding or has plans to expand. We need to keep up. We need to be constantly thinking about what is the next requirement for the Convention Center.”

When plans were launched to expand the Convention Center, the land to the south was designated as a site for future expansion and parking. PFD board member Mick McDowell said the district pledged to provide 800 parking spaces with the expansion of the Convention Center and is 450 short.

“We’re taking seriously our obligation not to be a parking burden on our neighborhood,” McDowell said.

Twohig said asking the City Council to initiate eminent domain proceedings would occur only if the district exhausts efforts to negotiate with property owners Glen Cloninger and Diamond Parking. Acquiring the property through eminent domain would require that the district prove to the city that the property is necessary for expansion and that other efforts to acquire it had been exhausted, according to an interlocal agreement between the district and city.

“We have a fall-back position, and that’s what eminent domain is for us, it’s a fall-back position,” Twohig said. “We can’t even go that route unless the Spokane City Council says ‘yes, we support you.’”

The 120,000-square-foot block is divided among the three parties as follows: Cloninger owns 63,000 square feet; Diamond Parking owns about 20,000 square feet; and the Public Facilities District controls 37,000 square feet. Twohig has said in the past that the district has about $3.8 million devoted to purchasing that land.

That may not be enough, said Cloninger, who places the price tag closer to $100 per square foot. At that price, it would cost the district at least $8.3 million to acquire all 83,000 square feet.

Ultimately in eminent domain proceedings, the value of the land is decided by a jury, using appraisals submitted by all the parties involved, said Stanley Schwartz, the PFD’s attorney.

“It’s a battle of experts,” Schwartz said. “It’s up to a jury to decide.”

The city would have the right not to buy the land if it decided the price set by the jury was too high. However, in that case, the city would have to pay the other parties’ attorneys’ fees and costs, Schwartz said.

Both Cloninger and Dan Geiger, Diamond Parking’s regional vice president, said they want to negotiate with the PFD. Geiger called it “very likely” that a deal will come together short of initiating eminent domain proceedings.

“We realize they want the space,” Geiger said. “Certainly there’s grander things that can happen down there than a surface parking lot. We’re open to anything. We just want to be involved from a parking perspective.”