Production firm buys art school building

A small film and video production company has purchased the Spokane Art School building for $1.1 million.

ILF Media intends to make minor renovations to the three-story brick building, 920 N. Howard St., and move in by July 1, said Jim Swoboda, a partner in the eight-year-old firm. The art school announced in January it would leave its longtime quarters, which it plans to vacate by June 5.

The new owner will occupy the top two floors and hopes to lease ground-floor space, which would work as an eatery or bar, Swoboda said.

“It’s needed in that little area there,” he said.

While the nonprofit Spokane Art School will no longer provide classes, it wants to partner with another arts organization and use sale proceeds to establish an endowment or bolster a current foundation, said Steve Walther, president of the school’s board of trustees.

Potential partners include the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture.

The school had occupied the roughly 11,700-square-foot building since 1984. Its board decided to sell in response to declining art-class enrollment and what officials called dwindling federal and state support for the arts.

ILF Media employs 12 people and primarily produces television commercials, such as for Super 1 Foods. Its name stands for Intelligent Life Forms.

ILF has also worked for trade shows and on Web site creation and maintenance. For the past three years, it made graphics for the big-screen monitors in Gonzaga University’s basketball stadium, McCarthey Athletic Center, Swoboda said.

“We stay under the radar, which is fine by us as long as we’re successful,” Swoboda said.

Through its property-holding company, Future Vision Properties LLC, ILF Media owns three parcels on West Nora Avenue that it bought after operating in the Steam Plant Square downtown. The company is negotiating with an attorney to sell two of the lots, Swoboda said.

Swoboda and partners Dave Holcomb and Daro Walker split off from North by Northwest Productions, where Holcomb was a founder and co-owner, because they didn’t like that company’s increasing focus on moviemaking, according to news reports.