Northtown Officials Blast Downtown Mall Say Redevelopment Will Hurt Retailers, Be Costly To City

NorthTown Mall’s owner went public Thursday with its opposition to the River Park Square project, saying the downtown redevelopment would hurt other retailers, generate only low-paying jobs and cost the city money.

“It’s a bad idea for Spokane,” said Laurent Poole, executive vice president of Seattle-based Sabey Corp. “Our economic development dollars have to go where they’ll have the most bang for their buck.”

Poole said he called the Thursday news conference to “set the record straight about Sabey’s position,” which he said has been distorted by the media.

NorthTown Mall is one of the city’s biggest taxpayers, contributing $5 million annually to city coffers, Poole said. “We have grave concerns about how that money is being spent.”

Betsy Cowles, president of both companies that own River Park Square, said the financial, parking and retail consultants she’s working with endorse the project as financially sound.

“Our market research indicates just the opposite,” Cowles said of Sabey Corp.’s analysis of the project. “I guess we could get into a battle of experts, ours versus theirs. We could battle over numbers until the end of time.”

The proposed $100 million redevelopment of River Park Square includes a new Nordstrom store, a 24-screen cinema and other shops and restaurants.

The City Council voted unanimously last week to allow a nonprofit corporation to issue bonds to buy the shopping center’s parking garage. The garage will then be leased to and operated by a public development authority created by the city.

A $24 million loan backed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development would finance the Nordstrom store, and private developers would contribute more than $40 million.

On Monday, the City Council will consider pledging city parking meter money to pay land rent, maintenance and operations for the garage - if parking garage revenues fall short.

Parking meter money this year totals $1.6 million of the city’s $11.6 street repair fund.

The council might pass the ordinance as an emergency, which would remove the public’s right to put the matter to a vote.

An opposition group called Citizens Putting Priorities First already is collecting signatures on a petition designed to force the issue to a vote.

Poole said Sabey supports the public vote, and said the company hasn’t ruled out a lawsuit if the ordinance is passed as an emergency.

Using a two-foot toy parking meter as a prop, Poole said the biggest falsehood the media has circulated about the project is that no taxpayer money will be used and the city will receive the garage for free.

“How much has to be raised so parking meter money isn’t used?” Poole said, holding the toy parking meter. “The parking garage has to (generate) three and a half times what it’s currently doing just to pay for the bonds.”

In a worst-case scenario, Poole said, the project would cost the city $49 million worth of parking meter money over 20 years.

Most of the jobs created, Poole said, would be $13,000-a-year jobs, $7,000 less than the average income in Spokane.

He also said city support of River Park Square would create an “uneven playing field” that would hurt other retailers.

The project would “cannibalize” other retailers because Spokane’s market is not growing, he said.

Cowles agreed that some of the jobs created would be minimum-wage jobs but said the project has to meet HUD requirements of creating jobs for low and moderate income people.

Also, she said, no businesses offering higher salaries would move to this area if the downtown is devastated.

“If it’s dark and boarded up,” she said, “they won’t come here with higher-paying jobs.”

Cowles said public money helps virtually every major development project - including NorthTown - in some way.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that a great deal of money was spent widening Division around NorthTown. Do we complain about that? No,” she said.

“This is a growing market,” Cowles said. “There’s a growing tourism market. There are a lot of dollars flowing out of town.”

The project will be a regional draw, she said, attracting people from Canada, Montana and Idaho. “If you create something that is a one-and-only kind of attraction, you do see growth,” she said.

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

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