Office Park Nice Enough For A Movie

In the Hollywood version of Russian novelist Boris Pasternak’s masterpiece “Dr. Zhivago,” a haunting film sequence records the magnificence of an aspen forest.

The small, round, silver-backed, reflective leaves of thousands of aspen fluttered and flashed in a breeze like a zillion points of light, winking off and on and dancing through the forest, wave upon wave.

There’s nothing like it that I’m aware of around here. But one can get an idea, a glimpse, of the effect in the Tapio Office Center at Freya and the Freeway.

And that’s the idea that Tapio architect-developer-owner Glen Cloninger intends to bring to the South Hill.

If you enjoy the trembling leaves of a quaking aspen grove, the ivy-covered berms, and the clusters of earth-toned buildings at Tapio, promises Cloninger, you will like Grapetree Office Park, coming soon to the South Hill.

As well, those who know and like TGI Friday’s will enjoy Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar.

Anywere else in town, a dozen smallish office structures grouped around a restaurant would hardly rate a mention.

But commercial development on the South Hill is a rare thing - especially a new free-standing restaurant - and projects the caliber of Tapio are rarer still.

Among small neighborhood-class office parks, Spokane has no equal to Tapio for excellence in design, layout, landscaping and environmental impact. This is commercial architecture elevated to the level of art. I never visit or even pass by Tapio that I don’t appreciate the environmental elegance, so unexpected in an office park.

Anyway, that’s the effect that the designer and majority owner of the 20-year-old Tapio complex says he will recreate along 29th Avenue between Martin and Napa, just west of the Lincoln Heights Shopping strip.

“We’re very sensitive to our South Hill neighbors, and want to fit in,” says Cloninger. He plans a dozen or so scattered structures, including a number of small “office cottages.” The site is roughly the size of the Tapio center.

But adjoining the South Hill complex will be a companion residential project of 44 single family homes, five of which are already up.

The residential component of the 27-acre planned-unit development project fronts on what would logically be 28th, but is called Pinecrest.

In the residential tract, too, the landscaping theme is heavily into aspens.

Indeed, restrictive covenants require that every front yard must display a minimum of five aspen. Every back yard must be planted with no less than 15.

Cloninger’s partner in the office park, Dave Mark, is building a cohesive residential neighborhood of what a sign calls “Artistic Homes.”

And they are that. The first five resemble mini-castles in size and architectural style. Fancy.

Cloninger didn’t care to talk price, except to say “upper end.”

Back to the office park. What’s an Applebee’s like? Practically everywhere else in the country, people know, says Cloninger. There are over 600 of them, including a new one in Coeur d’Alene.

And now one is being built in the Spokane Valley, he reports. His will be the third in these environs.

But to answer the question, “They are a quality neighborhood grill and bar,” says Cloninger. The South Hill Applebee’s will be “the flagship of the park” and cost a million and a quarter.

“I can’t tell you how many people have asked us to build a new top-of-the-line dining place,” says Cloninger. “I can tell you this is it. Across the country, their main competition is TGI Friday.

Site preparation is under way at the office park.

“After years and years of comprehensive plan changes, neighborhood task force meetings, zone changes and appeals, we have the necessary regulatory approvals and paperwork completed,” sighs Cloninger. “We’ll try to get started on the restaurant still this fall,” he says.

Grapetree Office Park will be directly north across 29th from another office park going in, Quail Run. This project is being undertaken by Dr. John Sonneland.

As announced early this year, it is supposed to include a restaurant, too, and about half a dozen other buildings. Utilities, curbs, paving, landscaping, and the first office building on the site are all nearing completion.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel’s column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review