Preservation group seeks to save Jensen-Byrd building

A Spokane historic preservation organization recently issued a plea to Washington State University to save a 97-year-old building on university land slated for development.

Spokane Preservation Advocates wrote a Dec. 26 letter to Gerald Schlatter, WSU’s executive director of capital planning and development, asking that the 1909 Jensen-Byrd building be preserved as the five-acre parcel on which it sits is developed. The building is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and if developers were to renovate it, instead of tear it down, they could receive tax incentives worth up to 40 percent of construction costs, the letter says.

Schlatter said preservation of the structure is up to the developer that wins the bid. The property stretches southeast from the corner of Pine Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard.

“If the developers decide they want to save the building, we’ll be happy to accommodate them, but we need a real body to enter into the conversation before we decide one way or the other,” Schlatter said.

The SPA’s letter says that the building was designed by architect Albert Held in 1909 for the Marshall Wells Hardware Co. of Minnesota. The building is Spokane’s second largest historic warehouse building and one of only two historically significant structures on the Riverpoint campus, the other being the Schade Brewery, it says.

“The building has outstanding potential to become the centerpiece of an exciting new development,” the letter reads. “It could provide … a dramatic physical presence of a kind that cannot be replicated in modern construction.”

Representatives of two of the firms that submitted proposals to develop the land, SRM Development and Northwest Architectural, have said they would tear down the Jensen-Byrd building if they landed the bid. A third, American Campus Communities, submitted three potential scenarios, one of which leaves the Jensen-Byrd building standing, according to Sue Lani Madsen, an architect working with the company.

Preserving the Jensen-Byrd building is the cornerstone of the proposal submitted by a group calling itself the Phoenix Project. The group sees the 120,000 square foot building as ideal for housing a farmer’s market, with abundant office space available on upper floors for start-up businesses, artists’ studios, and supportive office space, including attorneys and accountants.