Center’s sale discussed last month
Despite their declaration last week that there had been no offer made for the Public Health Center, county officials discussed at least one possible scenario more than a month ago with representatives of the upscale Kendall Yards development.
In a Feb. 15 e-mail, county attorney Jim Emacio said that a sale would include the developer building a new facility for the Spokane Regional Health District and then exchanging it for the existing building on College Avenue.
“This proposal has not been publicized,” Emacio wrote the health district’s attorney, Michelle Wolkey. “So I would ask that you use discretion in sharing it with others.”
The e-mail was part of correspondence that was made available at the request of The Spokesman-Review after health district employees saw “men in dark suits” in their building on March 23 who said they were doing an appraisal for the county.
On Tuesday, Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke repeated that discussion of terms of a possible sale was premature. He said Emacio, who was not present during discussions with representatives of Marshall Chesrown’s Kendall Yards development, was relying on an account of the meeting from county CEO Marshall Farnell.
In fact, Mielke said, the developers merely cited a similar offer to the state for the nearby Division III Court of Appeals building.
“They did not say we would do the same thing,” Mielke recalled. “They just said, ‘This is how we handled that one.’ “
The Public Health Center, which the health district leases from the county, is adjacent to Chesrown’s 77-acre property on the north bank of the Spokane River.
In the February e-mail to Wolkey, Emacio wrote, “As you have probably heard from (health district administrator Torney Smith), there has been an overture from Black Rock to purchase the Regional Health District Building.”
Black Rock Development, owned by Chesrown, is the developer of the Club at Black Rock in Coeur d’Alene.
“The county would expect Black Rock to ‘build’ another structure, which would meet the Regional Health District’s needs in the appropriate location,” Emacio continued. “The value of the new building and land would have to be equal to the existing value of the Regional Health District Property. The county would then ‘exchange’ properties.”
Apparently, Smith did not pass details about a potential sale on to Health Officer Kim Thorburn, who was surprised to find appraisers in her building more than a month later. She said the health district’s investment in the building, mostly through state and federal grants, exceeds the value of the building, which is assessed at about $4.2 million.
After requesting an explanation from county officials of why appraisers were in the building on March 22, Emacio e-mailed Wolkey that the county was having the appraisal done “for purposes of any negotiations.”
“There has been discussion of Mr. Chesrown building another building and doing some sort of exchange,” Emacio wrote. “My understanding is that we are in the due diligence stage. No negotiations or ‘formal’ discussion have taken place.”
Mielke said that the county is waiting for numbers on the appraisal.
“Then we have to see if we missed anything,” he said. “At that point we will share the numbers with Chesrown.”
Mielke was critical of Thorburn – who he said was not present at any of the meetings with developers – for taking a position on “pure speculation” before a specific proposal for the building is on the table.
Thorburn wasn’t the only one out of the loop. The board of health, which includes all three county commissioners, had not heard of the sale until the subject was raised at its regular monthly meeting last week.
County Commissioner Phil Harris said Tuesday that Thorburn’s request for information was the first he had heard of a potential sale. He said Mielke had been talking to the developers independently.
“It was one commissioner talking to them,” Harris said. “There was no meeting that I was in.”