Mirabeau Hires Project Overseer

As the countdown begins toward the first ground-breaking at Mirabeau Point, an architectural consultant has been hired to oversee development of the 70-acre, $33 million community complex in the Valley.

Last week, Mirabeau Point Inc.’s four-member board hired architect Sue Lani Madsen of Edwall, Wash., to oversee the design and construction of the Mirabeau campus.

Meanwhile, a $6 million contract to build the YMCA’s new aquatics center at Mirabeau Point has been awared to Robert B. Goebel General Contractor Inc. of Spokane. Construction should begin in June.

Mirabeau board members had wanted for several months to hire someone to orchestrate the project.

“We felt we needed someone working full-time, who was an expert in development focused on it on a day-to-day basis,” said Steve Jurich, Valley YMCA executive and a Mirabeau board member.

The community center campus on the former Walk in the Wild zoo site will include a senior center, a multipurpose building, an amphitheater, trails, and the 43,000-square foot YMCA aquatics center, which will include two swimming pools, waterfalls, a water slide, a fitness center and gymnasium. The aquatics center is expected to be completed in one year, Jurich said.

In May, construction will begin on a new road through the Mirabeau campus, linking Indiana and Euclid avenues. The $2.2 million Mirabeau Parkway will be five lanes running from Indiana to the YMCA and three lanes between the YMCA and Euclid.

Madsen, who runs an architecture and construction management firm in Edwall, will coordinate developers’ plans and direct the building process and design. Until Madsen’s hiring, Greg Bever, associate publisher of the Journal of Business, and Denny Ashlock, a Valley insurance executive, had overseen the project. Before his unexpected death in December, Ashlock spent thousands of hours planning and promoting the project, which he hoped would become a community focal point for the Valley.

“With Denny no longer around, with his passing last year, we felt that we need to hire a project manger to take care of the issues,” said Mirabeau board member and small business owner Kent Adams, who owns Adams and Associates, a consulting firm to non-profit community groups.

“We were impressed with the vision she brought to Mirabeau,” said Bever, who took over as chairman of the Mirabeau board after Ashlock’s death. “We wanted to move forward with Mirabeau and get a project manager on board.”

“This is an opportunity to affect the quality of life in the Valley,” Madsen said. “As the Valley becomes denser (in population) those few open spaces of green become important, and I think that’s what Mirabeau Point provides. … It’s like having a Riverfront Park in the Valley.”

Madsen’s contract will last two years, she said. The contract is still being finalized.

Madsen worked as a private consultant from 1992 to 1997 and was an associate with ALSC Architects of Spokane from 1981 to 1997.

While working for ALSC she was involved with such projects as the Spokane Arena, Shriner’s Hospital for Children and the Review and Chronicle buildings. She began her own firm last year. , DataTimes