Upscale condos planned for north bank

The push for downtown housing in Spokane continues as a team of investors announced on Thursday plans to build upscale condominiums on the north bank of the Spokane River.

The 28-unit, five-story condominium building will be constructed just west of the Flour Mill shopping center. WestCoast Hospitality Corp. Chairman Don Barbieri is leading the development group, which includes Flour Mill owner Maxwell Drever, Barbieri’s partner Sharon Smith and California businessman Mark Conroe.

The project, to be called the Upper Falls Condominiums, will stretch west from the Flour Mill and use the southern third of its parking lot. The units will overlook the Spokane River and will range in size from 1,800 square feet to 3,300 square feet, for top-floor penthouse condos with rooftop gardens. Prices will start at $400,000, and Barbieri said he has taken several reservations already.

“There’s pent-up demand and we want downtown to be vibrant. Getting people living there is the best way,” he said, adding that the condos will be marketed primarily to “empty-nesters.”

Barbieri would not disclose the total value of the project or the name of the bank financing it.

The Flour Mill parking lot will retain 160 of its 190 spaces, enough to meet peak demand, Barbieri said. Parking for the condominiums — two spaces per unit — will be underground.

The Upper Falls project joins a host of other recently announced residential projects near downtown. They include new lofts on Jefferson Street, a townhouse project on the site of a former fire station, and the development of the 77-acre Summit property, also on the north bank of the river.

Construction of the Upper Falls project is expected to begin in the fall with the units ready for occupancy by the summer of 2006, the partners said in a news release. The Portland firm Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects is designing the project in consultation with Spokane-area firm Draftech.