Rookery, Mohawk project collapses

The deal to purchase and restore downtown Spokane’s Rookery and Mohawk buildings has fallen through, a partner in the Los Angeles-based development company that had undertaken the project said Monday.

Craig Stevens of Renaissance Community Fund LLC said the proposed project disintegrated because of restrictive Washington state laws and the city of Spokane’s unwillingness to grant financial concessions.

In addition, Stevens said, the downtown housing market is “unproven,” and no banks were willing to fund a multiple-condominium complex when no similar projects have been built and established a precedent.

“The city couldn’t perform like we asked them to. I’m very sorry,” Stevens said. “We really think it’s a tragedy.”

Wendell Reugh, who owns most of the buildings on the block bounded by Riverside, Howard, Sprague and Stevens, wants $4.5 million for the property. He has said he will tear them down if no buyer steps forward. Crews tore down the 1890 Merton building in the fall. Reugh’s property manager could not be reached for comment.

Historic preservation advocates who want to save the 1934 Rookery Building and 1915 Mohawk Building have launched petition campaigns and held demonstrations. Recently, Spokane Preservation Advocates gave Renaissance a $5,000 grant to assist with the project.

“It’s nobody’s fault and everybody’s fault,” Stevens said. “If this block was that important to the city and the citizens of Spokane, then some guy from Los Angeles wouldn’t be spending the money to save it.”

Stevens and his partner Charles Loveman had asked the city for financial incentives including abatement of property taxes, waivers of permit fees and reimbursements of the city’s portion of project-generated sales and excise taxes. They also wanted the city to lease for five years a parking garage that Renaissance planned to build.

City officials said they could have helped ease design restrictions and possibly waived permit fees, but direct tax incentives are governed closely by state law.

Council President Dennis Hession said there is still hope that the buildings can be saved, although he did not identify a specific proposal.

In a related development, the City Council on Monday voted to extend a temporary moratorium on demolition of historic buildings without a plan to replace them with another building. The moratorium was enacted last year after Reugh obtained his permit to tear down buildings on the block occupied by the Rookery and Mohawk buildings. The moratorium was extended to give city officials more time to work out details of a permanent law outlawing historic demolitions without plans to replace the buildings.

Renaissance was planning a $25 million to $30 million mixed-use development that would have included residential condominiums, street-level retail and a parking garage. About 100 housing units and 20,000 square feet of retail space were envisioned.

In order to finance the project, Renaissance needed to do it in phases, with the lease money from the parking garage helping to pay for additional construction, Stevens said. As the buildings were developed, the developers would have taken back possession of parking spaces and ultimately the whole structure within five years, he said. In the interim, the city could have sub-leased the parking spaces to generate revenue.

“They didn’t want to tackle something else that had a parking structure in front of it,” Stevens said, referring to the city’s ongoing problems with the River Park Square parking garage deal.

Mayor Jim West last week said the city would not get involved in a parking garage venture at the site.

Stevens said Reugh was willing to financially “carry” the project to help it through different stages of development, but also wanted his asking price. “Actually, Wendell was pretty great about everything,” Stevens said. “The conditions were not met by the city, and the conditions were not met by the bank.”