Parker Howell

To drive more growth to central areas of Spokane, the city needs revised regulations, positive examples of infill and public education about density, developers and other panelists told Mayor Mary Verner on Wednesday morning. Spokane's comprehensive plan lays out guidelines for 21 mixed-use "centers and corridors," where the city envisions funneling construction and redevelopment to accommodate growth while limiting sprawl.

For decades, outdoorsmen have turned to Cabela's catalogs for hunting and fishing supplies in hopes of landing trophy game. Now they can set their sights on prize tracts of Inland Northwest recreational property. Kelly Davis, himself an avid hunter, is one of about 350 real estate brokers internationally who pay undisclosed amounts to use the Cabela's name to market their properties, including on Cabela's high-profile Web site. Cabela's Trophy Properties LLC selected him as its exclusive broker for Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

Inland Power & Light Co. will shoot for LEED Gold – the second-highest level of sustainability certification awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council – for a new headquarters building it's constructing on the West Plains. The electric cooperative broke ground last week on the expansion project at its current central warehouse, 10110 W. Hallett Road. It owns 21 acres there, where it plans the 26,000-square-foot administration building, a vehicle fleet-maintenance building and an addition to the warehouse, said John Francisco, project manager.

Home sales slowed and average sale prices dropped across much of North Idaho during the six months ending in April, compared with the same period a year earlier, new data shows. The Coeur d'Alene Multiple Listing Service recorded 808 sales of houses on less than an acre in Kootenai and other North Idaho counties, a 21 percent decrease. That's fewer houses than sold during the same period in 2002, a couple years before the peak of the Panhandle housing boom. Sales have declined during the six-month period since 2005.

Face lifts are in store for the venerable Spokane Athletic Club, both for its image and its Valley fitness center. The member-owned-and-operated club, known as a forum for social and professional networking, has reverted to calling itself just the Spokane Club. It's part of an effort by the organization, founded in 1890, to stay relevant, said Mike Fleig, general manager.

It's getting tougher to sell a home in Spokane. Buyers worried about the market and hindered by tightening credit purchased nearly a third fewer single-family homes through April than during the same period last year, a pace slower than any of the previous seven years. As cautious builders scaled back the pace of construction, the value of permits for new homes fell 42 percent from last year.

A Denver-based development company is negotiating with Washington State University to transform a 3.5-acre portion of its Riverpoint Campus into a health care, academic and research center comprising two new three-story buildings. NexCore Group first envisions constructing a three-story, 60,000-square-foot building on the northwest part of the site, which borders Pine Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard, to house a multispecialty outpatient facility anchored by Spokane practice Arthritis Northwest, a company director said. If the initial phase succeeds, the multiyear project could include renovating the historic Jensen-Byrd Building and erecting a second 60,000-square-foot building.

A joint venture that includes a Spokane construction company won a $106 million contract to finish a nearly 200,000-square-foot research facility at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland – the largest contract in lab history, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Spokane-based Lydig Construction Inc. and George Grant Inc., of Richland, will complete three main buildings, a test track and an underground laboratory for PNNL's Physical Sciences Facility, according to a department news release. Work on the complex, northwest of Horn Rapids Road and George Washington Way, starts in July.

A small film and video production company has purchased the Spokane Art School building for $1.1 million. ILF Media intends to make minor renovations to the three-story brick building, 920 N. Howard St., and move in by July 1, said Jim Swoboda, a partner in the eight-year-old firm. The art school announced in January it would leave its longtime quarters, which it plans to vacate by June 5.

Shares of Spokane Valley-based contract manufacturer Key Tronic Corp., buoyed by the company's report of improved quarterly earnings, jumped more than 40 percent Wednesday after months of decline. Key Tronic stock reached $3.67 during normal trading, up $1.07 from opening – the largest percentage gain for a Nasdaq stock on a day the market dropped a half-percentage point, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A shareholder in BlueRay Technologies Inc. accuses the Spokane company of not maintaining or turning over records such as financial statements and lists of assets, and says a partial balance sheet provided was off by $4 million. Yelena Simonyan claims in a lawsuit filed in Spokane County Superior Court that she invested $100,000 in the privately held company, but that BlueRay has not provided full financial records upon request as mandated by state law. Simonyan is asking the court to force BlueRay to offer up the records and pay her costs.

Longtime Spokane business Burgans Furniture will sell its buildings on North Division Street and hold a closeout sale, its majority owner announced Tuesday. The block containing the store, located at 1120 N. Division St., and several smaller structures will be acquired by an undisclosed company, said majority owner Bruce McEachran, president of E.S. Burgan & Son Inc. The new owner might remodel the store and another building but doesn't plan to operate a furniture outlet on the site, he said.

Noted architect and sustainable-building advocate William McDonough, designer of the planned Mobius Science Center, will speak this evening at an event to celebrate that more than one-quarter of the center's $35 million price tag has been raised. Nonprofit civic organization Mobius says it has garnered about $9 million from donations and state government toward the 53,000-square-foot center, which would be built on the north bank of the Spokane River between Washington and Howard streets. Mobius expects to break ground next year, assuming it raises enough money, said Mobius board member Chris Majer.

Two longtime Spokane radio stations will swap formats Monday, transforming KGA-AM into sports radio and "The Fan" KJRB-AM into news and talk. Both stations had carried a mix of programming, and owner Mapleton Communications LLC wanted to consolidate formats, said Don Morin, market manager. The switch also will correspond with the launch of hourly news broadcasts by The Spokesman-Review on KJRB.

An old railroad bridge across the Spokane River is nearer to reopening, this time to provide pedestrians and cyclists access between the University District and the Iron Bridge office park. Iron Bridge developer Kent Hull and the city have agreed to wash, partially repaint and re-deck the former Union Pacific bridge, which would open onto the Centennial Trial on the river's west bank near Gonzaga University. The project, advocated for by trail proponents and area neighborhood groups, still requires funding.