Developer Hanson Laments Poor Relationship With County
Despite what Raymond Hanson calls his own “awesome struggles” to work with Spokane County officials in developing his land, the entrepreneur and developer says he’s learned few tricks to share with other business owners.
“I’ve got to admit I haven’t been very good at it,” Hanson told businessmen and women at a Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce meeting this week. “I haven’t been very diplomatic.”
In the last few years, Hanson has wrangled with county officials over his share of the $23.4 million bill for the new Evergreen Road freeway interchange, fought to develop land along the Spokane River near Sullivan Road and even sued Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley for withholding e-mail messages he claimed defamed him.
Hanson is developing retail and commercial space on about 100 acres of land between Interstate 90 and the river, surrounding the Spokane Valley Mall.
His development includes Market Pointe I, which houses Barnes & Noble, Gart Sports, Staples and Circuit City; the recently approved Market Point II complex across Indiana Avenue; and the proposed Evergreen Crossing and Hanson Center East retail centers.
Construction of a hotel across Indiana Avenue from the Spokane Valley Mall began recently and contractors received a building permit for a new restaurant this week, Hanson said, although he declined to name the two businesses.
Hanson said Wednesday he lost five major tenants because of the delays he faced with the county process.
“It really breaks my heart where we’ve come to,” Hanson said. “And when people ask me where to go I say, `Kootenai County.”’
Spokane has lost business to surrounding areas such as North Idaho, he said, because it tends to be less developer-friendly than other places. He said the biggest difference is attitude of the people he has dealt with at the counties.
Hanson said he was considered one of the “good guys” when he founded R.A. Hanson Co., which developed custom-designed heavy equipment, and provided many jobs in Spokane.
“But as soon as I became a developer I was a bad guy, because developers are automatically bad guys,” a perception that he said is perpetuated by the media and others.
Hanson doesn’t wholly blame county officials for his struggles to develop the land he owns. They are forced to juggle laws and regulations passed by a state Legislature that cares little about the eastern half of the state, he said.
He singled out two county officials at the meeting - engineer Ross Kelley and commissioner Kate McCaslin - who have both helped him with the process.
Spokane County could attract more businesses and with them higher paying jobs if it could consider incentives such as tax-increment financing, he said.
Hanson’s comments sparked a discussion at the chamber committee meeting about the difficulty of attracting new business to Spokane and finding qualified workers to fill those positions.
He urged the Valley Chamber members to take steps to make the relationship between business and government better.