Apartment expansion under way
A Spokane developer is breaking ground on a 78-unit expansion to the Beau Rivage Apartments off Upriver Drive.
Rudeen Development LLC intends to build the structures over eight to 10 months, said Kirk Kappen, chief financial officer. The company expects a fall or spring opening, he said.
The units will be spread across four three-story buildings, located at 4909 E. Upriver Drive. The project will cost an estimated $5.6 million, according to recently issued Spokane County building permits.
Originally built between spring 1997 and February 1999, the 324-apartment complex averaged about 97 percent occupancy, according to the company’s Web site. Developers later added 114 townhomes and flat-style apartments, which were finished in 2005.
The current project is located west of Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs’ Riverwalk Point apartments, where an expansion began this spring.
Luigi’s building renovation
The owners of Luigi’s Italian Restaurant in downtown Spokane are renovating the top two floors of their historic brick building into new offices for a local company that helps small businesses that accept credit cards save money on fees.
Remodeling should be done by the end of the month, making way for PE Systems LLC to inhabit that part of the building, 245 W. Main Ave., said Marty Hogberg, who owns the structure and restaurant with his wife, Jennifer. The building will remain on both the Spokane and federal registers of historic places, he said.
Luigi’s Development LLC will spend an estimated $384,000 on the project. Hogberg plans to install underground staff parking later.
Luigi’s reopened in the former Salvation Army building in 2000 after fire destroyed its prior space on Bernard Street. Its current structure was built in 1921, according to county records.
Hogberg had eyed past office and condominium projects that fell through, he said.
Valley buffet opens soon
Exhibition cooking, a meat smoker and pizza oven are planned for a new Spokane Valley buffet opening Monday.
Brothers Greg and Brent Klinke, and their father, Paul, will return to the buffet business with Timber Creek Grill Buffet, 9211 E. Montgomery Ave. They previously ran six Granny’s Buffet restaurants in the 1990s, which they sold to the owner of Old Country Buffet.
“We’ve been dreaming about this for a few years,” said Greg Klinke, 49.
The restaurant will have a timber-lodge motif, offering seating for 370. It will employ about 90 people, he said.
If the concept works, the family hopes to open North Side and Post Falls locations, Klinke said.
Card shop closing
Downtown card and gift shop Paper Garden is going out of business and holding a clearance sale.
The two-level boutique, 702 W. Main Ave., will close by the end of the month, a manager said. Owner Carl Canale could not be reached for comment.
Canale bought the business in 2002 from Auntie’s Inc., according to past news reports.
Building Specialties getting new digs
Work is under way on an estimated $2.1 million new office and warehouse for construction-supply company Building Specialties in Spokane Valley.
The 27,000-square-foot pre-fabricated metal building, 7416 E. Broadway Ave., should be completed by the end of September, said Lon Stiner, project manager with Ventura, Calif.-based general contractor John Donaldson Construction Inc. The land is owned by Becknell Development Group, of Chicago.
Building Specialties, owned by Chicago-based L&W Supply Corp., plans to relocate this fall.
Numerica expanding to Moses Lake
Spokane Valley-based Numerica Credit Union expects to open a Moses Lake branch, its 17th, in early August.
The roughly 4,100-square-foot location, 800 N. Stratford Road, will employ five, according to a news release.
The credit union, which claims more than 70,000 members in Eastern Washington and North Idaho and more than $750 million in assets, opened an Airway Heights branch in January.