It's “open house” weekend in Spokane, with Realtors hosting open house events Saturday and Sunday at more than 500 homes on the market.

The event sponsor is Greenstone Homes, which has the “headquarters house” at the development company's Kendall Yards project on the north bank of the Spokane River near downtown. The fully­-staged townhome is at 408 N. Elm St., west of the Maple Street Bridge.

People visiting any of the open houses this weekend can register to win a $1,500 gift certificate from The Tin Roof. The winner will be announced Wednesday.

All of the open houses can be found at spokaneopen.com.

Today's business news story is an update on progress at the near-downtown mixed use development, Kendall Yards. (Story may require Spokesman.com access to read it in its entirety.)

The project has, up to now, been focused exclusively on building out the residential half of the project. About 60 units have been built and sold to date.

Now the company behind the project, Greenstone Corp., is starting two new commercial buildings. The first, in the rendering above, is the building on the left. It's called the Cedar Street Park Commercial Building.  A restaurant will fill the side facing the river.

The second commercial building is the one on the far right. It will be a two-story — plus daylight basement — office building, with no tenants yet announced. The two other buildings between those are also on the drawing boards, but will not move forward until some tenants/owners are lined up, said project manager Adam Jones.

Renderings come from Spokane's nystrom + olson architecture.

Tax subsidies will flow to Kendall Yards even if the developer of the 78-acre project does not seek public bids on construction of streets, sewers and other public infrastructure.

The Spokane City Council on Monday voted 6-1 to amend the tax-increment financing agreement it has with Kendall Yards to make the change.

Councilman Jon Snyder said state rules that he supports which prevent tax money for schools from being diverted to development make Washington’s tax-increment financing program less effective.

Allowing Greenstone to forgo public bidding is “a creative way to solve that challenge,” Snyder said. “We’re talking about a piece of dirt that has resisted development for 40 years.”

Kendall Yards is a highly-anticipated residential and commercial development on the north bank of the Spokane River in the West Central neighborhood. The land used to be the home to railroad tracks that were torn out as part of urban redevelopment related to Expo ’74.

Residents of Kendall Yards may have direct access to Monroe Street by the end of the year, weather-permitting, Wayne Frost said today.

The vice president of Greenstone Corp.’s commercial division said Ide Ave., which connects with Monroe just north of the Spokane River bridge, will be obliterated, as will the retaining wall supporting the sidewalk on its south side.

Some of that work, which includes the installation of water, sewer and other utilities, has already been done or is under way, he said.

In place of Ide, Frost said, Greenstone will build an extension of Bridge Ave. west from Monroe to a new section of Jefferson St. Jefferson will link Broadway Ave. to Summit Parkway, the main street of Kendall Yards.

The parkway will eventually run all the way through the development to Summit Blvd. on its west end, he said, but construction this fall will take the new road west only as far as Elm, where the first homes are being built.

Drivers on Bridge will have to yield to stop signs as they approach Monroe, he said.

With the planting of a tree, developer Jim Frank today revived the Kendall Yards development on the north bank of the Spokane River.

The first 18 units of the $25 million residential and commercial project, stalled by the financial problems of the previous developer, should be ready by the end of summer, Frank told a crowd of more than 100 gathered on the site between Bridge and Ohio avenues.

He said more Phase 1 units would also be underway, but street access is not yet available.

Four of the units have been pre-sold, and the buyers were enthusiastic about their future homes and the proximity to downtown.

“The developers have really done their homework,” said Gene Decheff, who with wife Cheryl will move into a two-bedroom townhouse, a radical down-sizing from their 10 acres on the West Plains.

The eventual owners of 279 proposed residences in Kendall Yards will not have to pay property taxes on new construction for 12 years.

The Spokane City Council on Monday voted 5-0 to accept Greenstone Corp.’s application for multifamily tax exemptions on the portion of Kendall Yards west of Maple Street. Kendall Yards is a 78-acre development west of Monroe Street, just north of the Spokane River. About 200 residences east of Maple Street are eligible for exemptions as well, but Greenstone has not yet applied for them.