Plan offers bold vision for 2010
Tonight, Spokane, you can party like it’s 2010, complete with a fresh video and CD release.
Supporters of the University District will gather at the Rendezvous Event Facility to unveil a strategic master plan in the works since a community forum in April. The final edgy, graphic-filled document envisions an area east of downtown Spokane that in six years will churn with 11,000 students attracted by an attractive urban campus, opportunities to participate in cutting-edge research with pre-eminent professors, abundant housing and shops, and cultural diversity.
The district has become the centerpiece, but by no means the only piece, of an intense effort by Spokane’s public and private leadership to leverage investment already made in the downtown, and to accelerate recent job growth by assuring Inland Northwest workers have the skills for tomorrow’s jobs in health care and technology.
New downtown projects announced or under way run from the Iron Bridge office park on the east to the new Convention Center exhibit hall and Davenport District in the middle and the Gorge Park and Sandifur Bridge to the west. News that Coeur d’Alene developer Marshall Chesrown will buy the Summit Property between the Sandifur and Monroe Street bridges northwest of the downtown core reinforces the sense Spokane may at last realize some of the potential local leadership has spoken of so earnestly for years.
But back to 2010 and the University District, which would encompass the area from Hamilton to Division, and Sharp to Interstate 90. The district concept was well-received from its inception. At the first community meeting, an audience of about 200 was unanimous – at least among those who spoke – in its enthusiasm. That support has remained consistent during subsequent meetings that refined the vision for the district.
Meanwhile, construction has begun on an Academic Center that will anchor a campus that already includes the Health Sciences Building, Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Center and Phase 1 Classroom Building – name still under construction. Local officials hope to convince the Legislature a Nursing Building should be added to the complex as soon as possible.
Other public investment will include major transportation improvements like extending Riverside Avenue east from Division, and enhancements to Trent Avenue as an extension of Spokane Falls Boulevard.
But the plan, together with a lively video prepared by I.L.F. Media and a CD with 10 cuts donated by local bands, is really intended to set the stage for private investment in housing, retail, recreation and business that can take advantage of the city’s unique health care and communications assets.
A pedestrian bridge over the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe right-of-way that will connect the Riverpoint Campus with the commercial district around East Sprague Avenue is a critical element.
Tom Reese, economic development adviser for the City of Spokane, says investors from outside the region are already receiving inquiries about the district.
“People are already seeing the power of the idea,” he says. “I’m just shocked at how well it all came together.”
As important as the total package may be as a marketing tool, however, it will be just as useful for neighborhoods adjacent to the campus. The plan identifies issues, opportunities and projects that will enhance life along Hamilton, for example, and the Division and Main area. There are recommendations for restoring the Spokane River’s environmental charms.
Reese acknowledges the city has work to do to make all this possible, but also expresses pride – deservedly so – in the work done by the city and many other contributors who pulled everything nearly within a tight timeline set by Mayor Jim West in April.
“It’s a new way of thinking for Spokane in terms of economic development,” he says.
Thinking, and more. The video suggests viewers “Imagine a Place.” Many in Spokane did just that during the planning period. Tonight they will see those individual visions distilled into something unlike anything Spokane has seen since at least Expo ‘74, Spokane’s last major league party.