School district intends to sell Lincoln Field to hospital

Spokane Public Schools plans to sell a grassy field near downtown Spokane to Sacred Heart Medical Center for $1 million.

The 50,000-square-foot plot, between Browne and Division streets near Fourth Avenue, could give Sacred Heart an opportunity to design a new “front door,” said an appraiser familiar with the property.

The deal must still pass a vote by the school district’s board of directors, which meets tonight. Funds from a completed sale would go into a district capital projects fund.

Although Lincoln Field, as the property is known, sits in Interstate 90’s shadow, it’s now mostly unused. Few people at the school recall its name.

“I’ve never heard of this Lincoln Field,” said Sage Howard, 14, a freshman at Lewis and Clark High School who hung out at the bike rack after school. His friends hadn’t heard of the site either. Even Principal Jon Swett was pressed to explain how to get there.

“I’ve never been there,” Swett said. He joined the school after the remodel.

Sacred Heart has no immediate plans for the site, said Mike Kelly, director of facilities for the hospital.

“We’ve got several projects on the board,” Kelly said. “I don’t know of any particular plans for that property.”

Bruce Jolicoeur, of real estate consulting firm Auble Jolicoeur & Gentry, appraised the site for the district a few years ago. Sacred Heart owns land all around that area, which it has purchased methodically through the years, Jolicoeur said.

“It’s a great piece of real estate. It looks like a natural for them,” Jolicoeur said. “As I looked at it, certainly the Division Street-Brown Street couplet could be a very primary access point to Sacred Heart. It very well could be their front door in the future.”

In 1888, a Lincoln Elementary School was built near that site. The school closed in 1967, said Kathy Ely, director of purchasing for Spokane Public Schools.

Sacred Heart was the sole bidder on the property.

The school board meets at 7 p.m. today in the Spokane Public Schools administration building, 200 N. Bernard.