Here’s the dirt: Walls to rise soon on YMCA-YWCA building

Crews next week are expected to start building the exterior walls of the joint YMCA and YWCA building on North Monroe Street. Those block walls will house aquatic and fitness centers, child care, community gathering areas, and services for teens, job seekers and victims of domestic violence.

Although construction was delayed, the YWCA hopes to occupy the 80,000-square-foot campus, at 930 N. Monroe St., in April 2009, said Monica Walters, YWCA executive director.

The organizations together have raised $27.3 million toward their goal of $40.5 million to build the central campus and a smaller joint building in North Spokane, said Trish McFarland, campaign manager.

Workers are still pouring footings and foundation walls following excavation on the site, said Kathy O’Hara, field superintendent for contractor Garco Construction Inc. The organizations received their building permit last month.

About 30 people will be working there next week once block masons arrive, she said.

The organizations broke ground in mid-November. But major excavation couldn’t start until after the organizations formed a separate legal entity allowing them to receive more than $5 million in special tax credits, a “critical portion of our campaign,” Walters said.

Obtaining the federal New Market Tax Credits, which required a complicated series of transactions, allowed the organizations to receive a bank loan for the project. Construction is expected to cost about $15.4 million, Walters said.

“And then, of course, the snow hit,” hindering work, Walters said.

The two agencies are collaborating on the campus to save money, eliminate duplication of services and expand programs.

ALSC Architects, of Spokane, designed both the North Monroe project and the smaller facility near North Nevada Street and Highway 2. Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, is contractor for the latter site.

The Spokane Park Board wants to purchase the YMCA building, which sits on the northwest corner of Riverfront Park. Spokane-based SRM Development LLC has proposed building at least one condo tower on the YWCA site overlooking the Spokane River.

Alzheimer’s care center slated for Valley

A Vancouver, Wash.-based company plans to break ground next week on a roughly 32,000-square-foot Spokane Valley care center for people with Alzheimer’s.

JEA Senior Living expects the center to house 66 residents and employ 50 to 60 full-time, said Cody Erwin, chief operating officer. The facility will provide 24-hour nursing care and have features such as motion-detecting equipment in rooms to help staff know when residents are active.

“We just really try to keep it really un-institutional and more home-like,” Erwin said.

The company hopes to open the center, 12009 E. Mission Ave., within a year. The project will cost about $6.5 million, Erwin said.

JEA Senior Living operates similar facilities in six states, including locations in Moses Lake and the Tri-Cities. Market studies have shown the region is underserved for Alzheimer’s care, Erwin said.

Sacred Heart to expand heart-surgery rooms

Sacred Heart Medical Center expects to spend roughly $6 million expanding and outfitting two new heart-surgery operating rooms.

The 1,300-square-foot rooms, earmarked for robotic specialties and vascular and interventional procedures, will be “among the largest certainly in the area,” said Mike Kelly, director of facilities. The project will probably take seven to nine months, he said.

“They’ll be state-of-the-art, and we’re very excited about the project,” Kelly said.

When the rooms are completed, Sacred Heart will have 34 operating rooms.

Employees plan trips to Nashville, Portland and Vancouver to look at facilities there, Kelly said.