Storage facility, convenience store to be built on Mann Center site

A Circle K gas station and $4.3 million storage facility will greet northbound traffic to the Hillyard historic business district.

According to permit activity with the city, the former site of the Joe E. Mann Center, 4415 N. Market St., will house eight storage-unit buildings on the north end of the property. The southern point of the oddly-shaped parcel will have a gas station, store and parking.

The store will be nearly 5,000-square-feet in size, open 24 hours a day and sell alcohol, according to city permit information. There will be eight fuel pumps.

William Scarbough, with Arizona-based Land Development Consultants, is leading the gas station project.

Douglass Properties, of Spokane, is developing the storage buildings, which are between 7,500 and 12,000 square feet in size. Mercier Architecture & Planning, of Spokane, designed the buildings.

The former U.S. Army Reserve site has been listed for disposal since 2005 as part of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. After years of discussions between city, school and tribal leaders failed to develop any material plans, the site was vandalized and plans collapsed.

Harlan Douglass and his wife, Maxine, who own Douglass Properties, bought the Mann Center in 2015 for $1.6 million in an auction from the U.S. government, according to county property records. The assessed value of the property at the time was listed at more than $2.8 million.

Last year, the buildings were demolished.