The Dirt: South Hill Grocery and Liquor planned for 17th and Ray

Developers have submitted a construction permit application for property that was previously the location of Owens Auction House, according to city of Spokane records.

Located at 3204 E. 17th Ave., the roughly 2-acre property was purchased for $2.2 million in September 2024 by Gurjot Bains, Gurchait Bains, Jagdish Bains and Amandeep Kaur, according to Spokane County property records.

Immediately southeast of the intersection of Ray Street and 17th Avenue, the developers are planning to turn the roughly 14,600-square-foot building into South Hill Grocery and Liquor, plans show.

The project was estimated to cost about $250,000, according to plans. The grocery store is projected to become a Harvest Foods, and the project is scheduled to be finished by sometime this summer, said Taylor Fleming, of Metro Engineering, which designed the project.

“We think it’s a great site on the South Hill with good traffic volume and visibility making it a great location,” Fleming said.

Cancer patients to get new housing option

A developer is planning to build a cancer-patient lodging facility to offer services like Ronald McDonald House, according to a construction permit application submitted to the city of Spokane.

Cancer Can’t, a Spokane-based nonprofit, is behind the effort which aims to house adult patients receiving cancer treatment and their families. The plan differs from Ronald McDonald House, which focuses on adolescent patients.

The lodging program is a vital resource to families, Cancer Can’t president Becky Van Keulen said. She discovered the need while her late husband, Jonathan Van Keulen, received cancer treatment.

“We felt lucky that we had a supportive family and good health care, because many others did not,” Van Keulen said. “We met people in treatment centers that were foreclosing on their house to afford treatment. Free lodging is an incredible resource to ease that financial burden.”

Especially helpful for families from out of town, patient lodging programs pay for families to stay at nearby hotels while patients receive treatments. In Spokane, these programs were operated by the American Cancer Society, a national nonprofit based in Atlanta.

But in 2020, it ended when the American Cancer Society closed its Spokane location as part of a shift in focus toward research and away from patient support programs like lodging.

Following the closure, Cancer Can’t took over contracts between the Cancer Society and local hospitals. However, Van Keulen said she and her team realized the program was failing.

The amount medical institutions would pay Cancer Can’t to lodge patients was not enough to cover hotel fees for families and operational overhead like wages. It also didn’t cover other costs like their volunteer-drive pool program that transports patients in need.

Van Keulen said radiation therapy can take about six weeks to complete.

“We were having to cut people off after just eight days,” she said. “That’s just not feasible for a rural family.”

Van Keulen and her team worked for about three years to build a more sustainable model. This included a campaign to raise money to build their own residential building.

Working closely with Spokane-based SRM Development, they developed a strategy that could work indefinitely.

“It has not really been done before,” Van Keulen said. “The data we get from this could be really interesting and could prove that something like this could be replicated somewhere else.”

The idea is that with their own building, operational costs will be much lower in relation to income they receive from donors and hospitals with which they contract. That would give them the financial capability to offer more services like extended stays and to grow their drive pool program.

The $6.5 million price tag of a new building has already been funded through state grants, federal grants and donors, including a major donation from Mike and Sandy Genova.

The project will be named the Genova Foundation in their honor.

Located at 1404 W. Mallon Ave., the building will consist of two stories and have a footprint of approximately 18,000 square feet, according to permit application documents.

The Genova Foundation will offer 20 one-bedroom units designed for cancer patients, Van Keulen said.

“The layout of each unit is with patient care and accessibility in mind, like offering an easy route from the bed to the toilet for instance,” she said. “Units were designed by patients and our board members that lived through what treatment is like.”

Other design characteristics include a pull-out couch for a second bed and a separate entrance to the bedroom allowing patients to come and go as they please without disturbing anyone else in the unit.

Additionally, each unit will have a full kitchen, as opposed to a communal kitchen which is typical at other lodging facilities, she said.

Construction is planned to begin this spring and be completed by about the same time in 2027.

Sandpoint-based Sayler Owens Kerr Architecture Design Studio designed the project and Spokane-based Bouten Construction will build it.

South Hill radio station

to be demolished for apartments

A new apartment building will bring 24 units of housing to the Moran Prairie Neighborhood, according to plans submitted to the city of Spokane.

A former radio station is currently located on the site, at 5484 S. Freya St., and will need to be demolished to make way for the apartments.

The building was previously home to Christian radio station KMBI, which is owned by Chicago-based Moody Radio.

The roughly 0.7-acre lot was purchased by Melissa and Dennis Crapo in June 2024 for $390,000.

The Crapos also own roughly 8 acres surrounding the small radio property.

The proposed residential building will cost an estimated $3.9 million to construct and be named the Moody Apartments, according to plans.

Efforts to reach the Crapos last week were not successful.

Plans were submitted by Tom Riley Diamond Rock Construction, a Spokane Valley-based firm.