Valley business park expands

Pinecroft Business Park is expanding as it caters to a growing number of national, international and regional companies seeking office space with ample parking, picnic areas and even basketball courts.

“We’re trying to create an environment that is comfortable,” said John Miller, managing partner for Pinecroft LLC, a group of nine investors and companies that owns the park.

Construction of several new buildings, with a total of 36,000-square feet of space, is currently underway on the 10-building campus, which is next to Mirabeau Point Park in Spokane Valley. Also, in the next year or so, Pinecroft’s owners plan to build a three-story office building with 60,000 additional square feet, complete with fiber optics and a cooling system that could accommodate a backup data center.

The complex, served by five different national providers of fiber optics, already houses a major backup center for Boeing Employees Credit Union – a 500,000-member credit union operating in the Puget Sound area.

After Sears Holdings Corp. moves its Fancher Road marketing call center there this fall, the park’s buildings will be nearly 98 percent full.

Miller’s construction company, Divcon Inc., is building its headquarters on Pinecroft’s west end and will move from its current office at Nevada Street and Hawthorne Road in November. Nearby, a 10,400-square foot spec building is going up. Down the road, an expansion is under way for Edmo Distributors, which sells aviation electronics, test equipment and pilot supplies.

Representatives of the 10-year-old business park recently met with Spokane Valley park officials about building a café on land near Mirabeau Point Park and close to the Centennial Trail.

The business park got its start in 1997, when a group of investors purchased 15 acres and built three office buildings. At that point, Miller said, they realized if the park was to grow, the investors needed to find more land.

“It became evident to us, ‘Oops, we’re about out of dirt,’ ” he said.

The company purchased another 12 acres, built several more buildings and then combined assets with nearby land owners. Today the park has 96 acres.

Jamie Traeger, John’s daughter and president of JMA Commercial Real Estate, the company handling the leasing and management of the park, said the owners hope to someday have 800,000- to 850,000-square feet of professional space there.

Pinecroft has already attracted more than two dozen businesses, including Cisco Systems Inc. and Amica Mutual Insurance Co.

Traeger said the campus’ proximity to Interstate 90 is a draw for some companies. Rents run $12 to $15 per square foot, plus operating expenses. Because the park looks similar to business campuses in other communities, she said, out-of-town clients readily identify with it.

“They’re very familiar with this product type,” Traeger explained.

Although the complex was built in phases, the partnership has strived to maintain architectural standards that include brickwork and some exterior landscaping. The goal, said Miller, is to keep Pinecroft looking like a business park.

“There’s plenty of competition, but we control our own environment,” Miller said.