Mixed-use project going forward

A 28-acre mixed-use development with shops, houses and offices is going in west of Lincoln Heights after eight years of legal challenges and nearly a decade in limbo.

Grapetree Village will include a gated community for seniors and single-family housing that’s part of a master-planned campus. Pathways will connect the residential portion of the campus to a $3 million commercial building that will front on 29th Avenue. “This can hopefully be viewed as a pilot project that is applicable to other areas. I think there’s a tremendous untapped benefit for mixed-use in Spokane,” said Glen Cloninger, a Spokane architect who is developing the project with business partner and contractor Dave Mark.

Cloninger said he wanted to create the feeling of Carmel, Calif. — a quaint seaside community — so included balconies, covered patios and fireplaces both inside and outside of the 18,000-square-foot, two-story commercial building.

“The buildings are all going to be made out of brick and stone with an emphasis on planters with flowers and such,” said Cloninger, who also designed and developed Tapio Center, an office campus on Freya Street near Interstate 90.

The project is breaking ground after years of court battles that pitted the architect against some neighbors and members of the Rockwood Neighborhood Council. The group hoped to block what they viewed as commercial sprawl.

At the time, mixed-use was a relatively new concept in Spokane and city codes weren’t geared toward addressing that type of development. Two years ago, the case landed in the state Supreme Court and justices ruled in favor of Glen A. Cloninger & Associates.

Baker Construction and Development Inc. has started work on the commercial building, which is located next to Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar.

Tenants will include a minor emergency clinic owned by U.S. HealthWorks. The clinic has been serving patients at an office at 29th Avenue and Grand Blvd. for about 24 years.

Other suites will house Cabin Coffee, part of a locally-owned chain, and Family Karate Center and aerobic studio, which will move from its 57th Avenue location to Grapetree Village. Two vacant spaces will likely accommodate a neighborhood business and office.

Behind the commercial building, on the east end of Pinecrest Road, Cloninger is designing about 60 brick cottages dubbed Waterford at Grapetree. The homes are being built by Eagle Mountain Construction, he said. Waterford at Grapetree is for seniors aged 55 and older. The gated community will be operated by Waterford on South Hill, which has a retirement community across the street.

Another phase of the development will add more offices and single-family homes along with multi-family housing. Multi-family could mean townhouses or apartments, the architect said. A proponent of mixed-use projects, Cloninger said the master-planned community can share resources, such as landscaping, and offers convenience.

Work will start on the cottages in the next month or two, he said, and the commercial building on 29th Avenue should be complete in October.