Hundreds explore world of downtown living

The traffic below can be annoying. And the views from the 11-foot-tall windows are rather ordinary.

Still, more than 300 people paid $25 each Sunday just to walk though a model condo in the West 809 mixed-use building at Lincoln and Main in downtown Spokane. The tour, a benefit for the Spokane Symphony, was the first public showing of the one finished condo and others that are in progress.

Ron Wells, whose Spokane firm is the architect and broker for the units, served as the guide for the three-hour preview. He led visitors through the fully furnished second-level, 2,300-square-foot loft condo that looks out toward the Nordstrom building in River Park Square.

Reactions were mixed, with many saying they loved the 20-foot ceilings, complete with exposed aluminum ductwork, while others found the condo’s limited access to the outdoors a drawback.

“The small balcony is just about the right size for our dog,” said Spokane resident Melissa Willis, who with her husband, Charlie Willis, took a spin through the finished condo and the larger split-level loft one door down on the second floor.

Eight of the 21 condos have been sold already by the property’s owner, CPC Development Co., a subsidiary of Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

Someone that Wells didn’t identify already bought the finished condo for $747,000. The 21 lofts run from $648,000 to $1.2 million.

“It’s at the very heart of downtown’s retail, restaurant and entertainment offerings. If across the street is Boardwalk, this (the West 809 condos) is Park Place,” Wells said.

Visitor Erik Ruggels, a Spokane resident, shook his head at the price and said $750,000 today can buy a 10th-floor downtown condo in San Diego. However, the Spokane condo would be about twice the size of the San Diego condo.

“Still, this building is a great reuse,” Ruggels said of West 809.

“This was a department store before, and look what it is now,” Ruggels said.

The West 809 building originally housed a J.C. Penney.

Its downstairs level is all retail; so far, restaurant PF Chang’s and clothier Jos. A. Banks have moved in.

Half of the second floor belongs to 24 Hour Fitness, while the condos fill half of the second and the entire third floor.

The eight units sold so far have been purchased mainly by baby boomers looking to simplify their lives, said Wells. Two of the units sold will have families. One couple in their 30s have two school-age children. Another couple have two teenagers, said Wells.

The views are mainly north, toward River Park Square, or east, toward commercial buildings along Post Street.

“These are not river-view condos,” Wells said. “Maybe, on the far corner of the third floor, you might see a tiny slice of the river.”

Tucked into the busy commercial center of town, the condos have been designed to minimize noise.

An engineering team from Seattle added acoustic dead spaces between the walls of each condo.

None of the units, as a result, shares a wall with the next-door unit.

With 13 units still unsold, Wells said the Sunday showcase was a good way to introduce high-end loft living to people testing that market.

He predicted the 13 units will sell within the next six months.