Park Feeling The Flex Industrial Area Getting New Multi-Use Buildings

Employers have always valued flexible workers. Now some can also have more flexible work space.

A new breed of industrial building called “flex” is entering the Spokane market, offering tenants warehouse, office, production and retail space all rolled into one.

Construction will begin next week on a $2.8 million flex building at the entrance to the Spokane Industrial Park in the Spokane Valley.

The 32,000-square-foot facility will have glass storefront windows on the front and roll-up doors in the back. Most of the building will be singlestory, but the north end will offer second-story office space. Crown West Realty, which owns and operates the park, will move into that space.

“It’s designed to accommodate multiple kinds of use,” said Brent Long, Crown West Realty’s marketing director. “What we envision is probably 50-60 percent office and small warehouse plus retail.”

This will be the first flex building for the Spokane Business and Industrial Park, which leases about half of Spokane’s industrial space.

Long said flex space is ideal for companies that have a variety of needs. Retail and office space can be set up in the front of the building, with storage, production and distribution facilities in the back.

“You see a lot of them in bigger markets, but it’s just starting to catch-on here,” said Long. “If this one leases well, we’ll build more flex, most likely in the business park.”

A $4.6 million, 100,000-square-foot warehouse, distribution and assembly facility is also being built at the park. The concrete, tilt-up structure will feature a 28-foot clearance height and large bays on the front and rear.

But the big story behind new flex space development in Spokane County, said Summit Property Development’s Russ Johnson, is that speculative space is built at all.

Despite just a 4.1 percent vacancy rate last year, the industrial market here has been slow to build spec space, because of low demand, he said.

SDS Realty is constructing a 24,000-square-foot speculative tech-flex building and a 35,000-square-foot class A office building at Summit’s Liberty Lake Center.

SDS owner Steve Schmautz said the goal is to build high-end structures that will appeal to high-end clients. Flex space, he said, gives companies an attractive office or storefront in addition to typical industrial space in the back.

“It’s really just taking an old concept of the office warehouse that we’ve seen around Spokane and taking it to a new level as far as quality,” he said.

Around town

Payless ShoeSource will begin selling shoes inside Spokane area ShopKo stores in early June. The ShopKo shoe departments will carry the same footwear and accessories that are available at Payless ShoeSource’s retail locations.

Payless began taking over ShopKo’s shoe departments across the country last October. By autumn, all ShopKo stores will carry Payless shoes.

An A&W Restaurant is being built in the Spokane Valley at Sprague and Sullivan. It is scheduled to open in early August.

Several new stores have opened at the Spokane Valley Mall, including junior apparel store Rave, watch kiosk It’s About Time, gift store Goin’ A.P.E. Novelties, baseball card and memorabilia store Collector’s Zone II and kitchenwares shop Red Rooster Trading Co.

Mexican restaurant Azteca and steakhouse Black Angus are scheduled to open at the Valley mall this fall.