Bridge Or No, River Park Square A Go

River Park Square’s $100 million redevelopment will forge ahead with or without the Lincoln Street bridge.

But the bridge is the key to making downtown Spokane thrive, says Betsy Cowles, president of the two companies that own the shopping center.

“The last thing you want to do is create all these exciting reasons for coming downtown and make it impossible to get there,” Cowles said. “You want to make it easy to get to downtown Spokane … the arena … the shops on Monroe.”

Last week, Cowles urged City Council members to make good on past assurances the bridge would be built. She and other downtown developers based their plans on the city’s guarantees, she said.

River Park Square’s final design includes the Lincoln Street bridge, Cowles said.

“The issue is one of reliance and being done with plans. We’re under construction,” Cowles said. “Our flexibility is done. We’ve … spent millions of dollars in design of the (parking) garage and the project with the bridge in mind.”

At least one council member wasn’t swayed by Cowles’ argument.

“To say that we need to fulfill commitments, that is not an argument that holds a lot of water in every single situation,” Councilwoman Roberta Greene said. “It’s like I’m committed to do ‘X.’ Things change, so therefore I’m not supposed to look at it again?”

Cowles thinks the council needs to look at future traffic patterns to understand why the bridge is needed.

“If you know a problem is going to be there, you don’t wait,” she said.

The second-story entrance and exit ramps to the project’s parking garage come off Spokane Falls Boulevard. The entrance is to the east of Post Street, while the exit is to the west.

Without the Lincoln Street bridge, drivers heading out of the garage who want to travel north would have to circle around the block to get on Post or use the Monroe Street Bridge.

The River Park Square project has closed off the one-block section of Post from Spokane Falls to Main Avenue, making the Post Street bridge a “bridge to nowhere,” Cowles said.

That means traffic coming south on Post Street must turn west at Spokane Falls, forcing more traffic into the three-way intersection at Monroe, Main and Spokane Falls.

Cowles said the environmental study of the shopping center’s redevelopment was based on current traffic conditions, so the project can be built with or without the Lincoln Street bridge.

“But that’s not looking at 2005 or 2010,” Cowles said. “Our project will bring in at least three times the number of people to downtown Spokane, and that doesn’t include the Davenport, the old Lamonts … Add all those things in and look at what the demand is going to be.”

The redeveloped River Park Square is expected to open in mid1999. It will include a new Nordstrom, a multiplex theater, expanded parking, an atrium over Post Street and numerous shops and restaurants.

River Park Square is owned by Citizens Realty Co. and Lincoln Investment Co., affiliates of Cowles Publishing Co., owner of The Spokesman-Review. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo