West Spokane condos proposed

A Sunset Hill landowner is proposing a 400-unit, seven-building condominium complex near Interstate 90.

Set on about 17 hilly, forested acres along West 14th Avenue, the phased project would include “mid-range” condos in an “urban set of buildings” that includes a clubhouse, said Stefani Randall, a project manager with Steven Meek Architects . The land is owned by Grandview-Washington LLC, a company with ties to Seaside, Calif.-based DYI Properties.

The proposal calls for four- to seven-story buildings. The developer will ask for a height variance for part of the property, because multifamily zoning limits structures to 35 feet, said Tami Palmquist, city planner.

A community meeting on the proposal is scheduled for May 6.

The architect will aim to create a unique neighborhood that ties in with downtown, Randall said. (Steven Meeks designed the AmericanWest Bank Building downtown, and has done work on proposed condo projects such as Spokane developer Mick McDowell’s Riverview on Riverside tower overlooking Peaceful Valley.)

“We’re really trying to work with the topography,” she said. “We just think it’s an exciting, unique new project.”

Investment group DYI Properties LLC, then of Monterey, Calif., in summer 2004 paid $6.4 million for Solar World Estates, a Spokane company that offered apartment-style living to business travelers. Solar World the time had 93 units in Airway Heights and 32 in North Spokane.

Most of DYI Properties’ real estate holdings were in California, and the Ishii family discovered Spokane through friends who live here, Galen Ishii, vice president, said at the time.

Ishii and other family members are governing people of Grandview-Washington LLC, according to state records.