Ridpath Club Apartments on track for fall completion

Ron Wendle is the first to admit there have been some hang-ups in the $22 million renovation of the old Ridpath Hotel.

“It’s a big, overgrown bathroom project,” he said. “It took forever to get out of the third floor.”

But out they got, and the 22 units on the third floor are full. Or, as Wendle said, “We are 100 percent occupied in 10 percent of the building.”

Build-up in the plumbing and rust in the heating system are to blame for getting the building occupied, said Wendle, the project architect renovating the Ridpath Club Apartments with Ron Wells, a long-time Spokane developer of historic properties.

But the dusty hallways and roaming tradesmen are signs that the original October 2017 opening date, then the December deadline, were a bit too optimistic.

Things are now happening apace, Wendle said. The units on the fourth and fifth floors should be ready in days, and the sixth and seventh will be open by July 4, he said. All of the 206 units, and the restaurant on the ground floor, should be done and open by September.

Jeremy and Kate Hansen, who own Santé Restaurant & Charcuterie and several other local restaurants, plan to open a restaurant on the hotel’s first floor. Part of the 5,900-square-foot space will be a bar specializing in gin drinks, similar to the couple’s Hogwash Whiskey Den in the Washington Cracker Co. building.

The units in the building will range in size and price, from “micro-apartment” to one-bedroom, and with a monthly rent between $495 and $1,575.

The micro-apartments average 220 square feet and amount to a refurbished hotel room with a kitchenette, including a stainless steel sink, two-burner cooktop and fridge. A combined microwave and convection oven is also included. They’ll rent for between approximately $495 and $850.

The building’s studio apartments are a bit bigger, averaging 300 square feet, and priced from about $550 to $1,080. The one-bedroom apartments are as large as nearly 1,000 square feet, and will rent for between approximately $550 and $1,575.

As Wendle stood in “Room 417,” an apartment still adorned with the hotel’s sign as every other unit is, he looked out the window, where the buildings of downtown framed his view: the Parkade tower, Sherwood building and Old National Bank building.

“The connection to the whole city is right here,” he said.

Wendle said the apartments, which are labeled “workforce housing,” will allow for “the edited lifestyle.” He described it as living in a small space with a penchant for being out and experiencing the city.

“It really is for people who work for a living and like the downtown experience,” he said. “Like the baristas at the coffee shop. Or people who are moving out of their parent’s basement. Older folks, too.”