The Dirt: Detox center planned for Spokane Valley

Plans for a new detox facility, which first surfaced in 2022, continue to advance for a site on North Evergreen Road in Spokane Valley.

According to building records, the owner and planners recently conducted a commercial-development-predevelopment meeting with Spokane Valley building officials. Those meetings are used to give developers feedback about what they need to accomplish during the permitting process.

Ryan Andrade, a civil engineer with Whipple Consulting Engineers and the listed applicant, said the building permits have not yet been sought for the property at 204 N. Evergreen Road.

“It should be soon, but I’m not sure on the date,” he said.

Andrade said it’s the same plan earlier proposed by Argos LLC, a Spokane Valley real estate company, that would build a 40-bed detox center on Evergreen Road. The facility would help recovering addicts get through withdrawal before entering a rehabilitation clinic.

The 18,300-square-foot Evergreen Road facility would sit atop an acre of land near the Sprague Avenue intersection, sandwiched between commercial and residential properties. The area is zoned “corridor mixed use,” and the detox center is allowed per Spokane Valley code, city staff said.

The building could handle up to 40 patients at once in 20 rooms. Those patients would typically stay three to seven days and enter the facility voluntarily. They would have to be dropped off and picked up at the site and wouldn’t be allowed visitors.

The projected cost for the center was listed at $7 million.

Gene Arger of Argos LLC and Dwight Hume, speaking on Argos’ behalf, spent their portion of the public hearing in 2022 attempting to assuage neighbors fears about adding the facility in their neighborhood.

Arger, at the time, described the detox center as luxurious and “state of the art.” He said it will be a “multimillion-dollar” facility for working-class people in search of an “upscale” detox experience.

Only privately insured individuals would use the detox center, Arger and Hume said, explaining that the facility would not accept people who rely on Medicare or Medicaid or rely on state or federal funding.

Arger and Hume emphasized that the detox center would be secure. An opaque, 6-foot fence would surround it, and anyone coming or going would need a key card to open the doors.

“There isn’t a strong possibility of the patient leaving the facility on their own,” Hume said. “Consequently, they shouldn’t be seen as a threat to the neighborhood.”

Attempts to reach Arger last week were not immediately successful.

Keystone Villas

A developer in Spokane Valley has held a predevelopment meeting with Spokane Valley building officials to discuss the possibility of building 44 units of housing on vacant land near McDonald Road.

Documents indicate that the proposed Keystone Villas would include six fourplexes, six triplexes and one duplex on land located just south of East Fourth Avenue, west of South McDonald Road and east of South Virginia Road.

The proposed development is just north of the Central Valley Student and Family Engagement Center at 612 S. McDonald Road in Spokane Valley.

The listed owner of the project, Loree Van Diest, said last week that she was reluctant discussing the project because it remains in early stages of planning. The purpose of the meeting was to get feedback about what the developers need to do to seek permits.

She hoped to be able to comment about the project, which is being designed by MHE Engineering, at a later time.

The cost of the project, and when Van Diest hopes to begin, were not clear based on the application.