Spokane Skyline May Get New Look Developer Proposes New High-Rise Office Towers

Will Spokane finally see its first new downtown office tower in nearly 20 years?

“It’s time for a new tower and some excitement in the downtown skyline,” said architect Glen Cloninger.

A high-rise office has not been built in Spokane since 1982.

Cloninger would like to change that.

He wants to build a two-tower complex across the street from the Spokane Opera House on the site currently proposed for convention center expansion.

Cloninger owns or has ownership interest in two-thirds of the block, where the Arizona Steakhouse and a Diamond Parking lot are located.

Cloninger thinks the proposed convention center expansion could be built east of Bernard and could share a 1,000- to 1,500-space parking garage with his tower project, at a cost savings to taxpayers.

The west part of that block now houses School District 81 administrative offices, an accounting firm office and a former restaurant.

Current convention center plans include three levels of parking on top of the additional exhibit space. Convention Center expansion proponents have yet to review Cloninger’s proposal.

His towers would be built in two phases, starting with a 27-story high-rise with 200,000 square feet of office space, then a 19-story tower with 150,000 square feet of office space.

The higher tower would be Spokane’s tallest building.

Cloninger said that if plans progress, construction could begin next year.

Should the Spokane Falls Boulevard space not work out, Cloninger is also considering a site at the southeast corner of Howard and Riverside now occupied by the Rookery Building.

Rob Brewster, the local developer who renovated the Holley-Mason Building for Lewis and Clark High School, let an option he had on that block lapse last year.

Brewster, however, said he is still working on his plans for a $35-$40 million high-rise at another site yet to be disclosed.

Demand for downtown office space is still an issue. Brewster, Cloninger and developers of other competing proposals for a new downtown high-rise are vying for tenants. Topping their list is Spokane’s largest law firm, Paine Hamblen Coffin Brooke & Miller.

Paine Hamblen, said Managing Partner Shaun Cross, is looking for 60,000 square feet of contiguous, downtown, Class A office space to accommodate its growth.

The problem for Paine Hamblen is that more than 95 percent of the top-of-the-line space in the central business district is occupied, leaving less than 50,000 square feet of available Class A space.

In addition to Cloninger and Brewster, Cross said that Paine Hamblen has been approached by four other developer/investment groups interested in building an office tower in downtown Spokane.

“Metropolitan has looked at it as a possibility,” said Cross, “and we’ve been contacted by a group in Seattle that I can’t mention, and there is another group in Spokane that has the capability of putting up a tower.

“There is only sufficient demand for one tower,” said Cross, speaking of speculation that his firm is in the driver’s seat, “and if that means that whichever one we choose is going to be built, then there is some truth to that.”

Avista Corp. also has been mentioned as a possible tenant in a new downtown office tower, but company leaders will not confirm they are looking to move from their East Mission location.

In addition to tenants, would-be downtown office tower developers are contending with a rental market priced below the cost of building new Class A office space. Class A space is now renting for $17-$19 a square foot. Building an office tower, however, would most likely cost a developer $23-$25 a square foot.

“One of the issues for the developers and investors is whether Spokane will support that kind of increase in the rate market,” said Cross. “I think it will.”