Factory displacing tenants in downtown Spokane

Low-income residents and a nonprofit mental health agency housed at the Commercial Building downtown will have to move so the structure can be converted into a Blu-ray disc manufacturing plant.

The 45 residents, many of whom suffer from mental illness or drug and alcohol addiction, will need to move “as soon as we can possibly help them,” but they will receive federal vouchers to subsidize new, one-room apartments, said Steve Cervantes, executive director of Northeast Washington Housing Solutions.

Representatives of BlueRay Technologies Inc., a Valencia, Calif.-based company that wants to convert the three-story building, located at 1115 W. First Ave., into a $12 million plant, said earlier this month the company was still considering whether to finalize the purchase and displace residents.

“The two can’t coexist in an environment like that; as much as we would have liked it to, it just wouldn’t have worked,” said Lon Gibby, president and CEO of Spokane Valley-based Gibby Media Group, which will oversee the plant.

The company has purchased equipment, and initial plans called for the plant to open next month. Construction will start as soon as building permits are ready, but the construction timeline depends on relocation efforts, Gibby said.

If work isn’t done soon, the company could miss the Christmas production window.

“The sooner it opens, the better,” Gibby said. “If there’s a bunch of obstacles, then it could be quite difficult, I’m sure, for BlueRay.”

Gibby said BlueRay was concerned with the tenants’ welfare, and representatives met with government agencies and felt comfortable that they supported the change.

Building residents received a letter Wednesday from Housing Solutions saying “a team of many organizations are working together for a smooth transition and relocation process for you.”

Unlike past federal subsidies, the vouchers will be permanent and will allow residents to upgrade from shared living areas to individual apartments, Cervantes said.

“The downside is, yes they have to move,” he said. “The positive side is they can upgrade their environment, and hopefully upgrade other opportunities for them.”

But relocating tenants won’t be easy, Cervantes said.

“A lot of these folks are not going to have the logistical support that they need, and we don’t have that available in-house either,’ he said. “So we’re going to have to call on the community to help.”

Residents are scheduled to meet this afternoon with officials from Housing Solutions, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the city of Spokane, the Downtown Spokane Partnership and other organizations in the building.

Several tenants expressed concern Thursday about their futures.

“It’s kind of stressful,” said Garry Campbell, 54. He lived on the streets prior to moving in.

“I don’t want to wind up there again. Although it’s summer, it’s still no fun,” he said, adding that local homeless missions are “depressing.”

Hope Partners, an in-house mental health and substance abuse counseling service, will need to move by June 30, said Jim Delegans, who headed Otis Associates Limited Partnership, the Commercial’s prior owner. While Hope Partners might move to the Spokane Mental Health facility, Delegans doesn’t know where a weekly sack dinner service provided at the building will go.

People waiting for the meal service crowded the sidewalk outside the Commercial on Thursday night.

Delegans and Otis Associates lost the property as collateral on the Carlyle Care Center building, which went bankrupt.

Providing past rental history might be a problem for some tenants, but Cervantes said he sees a 5 percent vacancy rate in the area, and it’s advantageous to landlords to fill their units. Housing Solutions will compile a list of potential one-bedrooms.

Delegans called the change a “loss of a community resource.”

“Unfortunately, there are those in the community who describe the Commercial Building as a blight in the First Avenue neighborhood,” he said. “But I don’t think gentrification is a solution for urban renewal.”