The Dirt: Apartment building planned for South Hill

A developer has submitted plans to build a three-story apartment building on the South Hill on South Freya Street.

The site currently contains a large single-family home at 4911 S. Freya St. But a local developer is pursuing a plan to build a roughly 35,000-square-foot building at the site.

The 3-acre plot is owned by John Cochran, a local dentist and real estate investor, according to Spokane County property records.

Cochran purchased the property in 2025 for $825,000. The cost of construction of the apartment building is estimated at $3.3 million, according to application documents.

The project has been named the Timberline, according to application documents.

Spokane Valley-based Mercier Architecture & Planning designed the project and Spokane-based CM Construction and Development will build it. CM Construction is a general contractor co-owned by Cochran.

Red Cross plans remodel

American Red Cross, a humanitarian nonprofit that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and disaster preparedness education, has applied for a permit to the city of Spokane to allow a remodel of its donation center in North Spokane.

Located at 315 W. Nora Ave., the project, which was estimated to cost about $725,000, will update the building’s ceilings, floor, paint, offices and restrooms, according to permit submittals.

Chris Von Seele, chief operating officer of the nonprofit’s northwest region, said design is still in its final phase but he anticipates the project will be completed sometime in the winter or early spring of 2027.

“This project is part of a nationwide investment effort to ensure that our community-facing properties are welcoming spaces, ready to serve our future efforts to connect more deeply with the people we serve,” he said.

Located immediately east of North Central High School, the building is one-story tall and encompasses a total of 11,161 square feet.

While the Nora Avenue building is where the donation center is located, remodel efforts will also update areas of operations for the nonprofit’s other services.

“We will continue to deliver the programs the Spokane community has come to know us for: Disaster relief services, lifesaving CPR and First Aid certification, and blood drives serving critical patient needs in hospitals nationwide – among many others,” he said. “We are committed to exploring new ways to expand our support into the community, and this newly modernized space will allow us to do that more effectively.”

Red Cross has for decades operated in the building, which needs improvements to its energy efficiency and to enhance accessibility for visitors and clients, Seele said.

“We’ll be overhauling our ADA compliance to the current standards, adding access options between our two floors and rethinking how our square footage can be configured to take advantage of modern technology and workstyles,” he said.

Rumsey Construction, a California-based firm, will build out the space designed by JP Architecture and Design, an Alabama-based firm.

“We want to pack even more American Red Cross community services into the space we have, while modernizing our energy efficiency to ensure that our donors’ generous financial support is maximally focused on direct benefits to our client communities,” Seele said.

East Sprague building remodel

A vacant building near the University District will receive an overhaul remodel, according to plans submitted to the city of Spokane.

Located at 627 E. Sprague Ave., the building formerly housed American Directors, a market research and public opinion polling firm, which closed in 2023.

The roughly 36,000-square-foot building was recently listed for sale and is now under contract, according to NAI Black’s website, a local commercial real estate leasing firm.

The building is planned to be subdivided to house multiple tenants. New shared restrooms will be added, entryways and lobbies will be updated, a new elevator to access the building’s basement will be built and the exterior facade of the building will be overhauled.

The property is owned by Sprague 715 LLC, which is owned by a group of Spokane-based real estate investors. The address of the adjacent property is 715 E. Sprague Ave., which is owned by the same group and which consists of a large commercial building housing a number of businesses, including the Masonry Center and the Spokane Community Justice Center.

Gwen McConn, of Olson Architects, a Spokane-based firm that designed the project, submitted plans to the city.

Plans were submitted as part of the predevelopment process, which gives developers the opportunity to garner feedback from city building officials before construction permits are sought.

“Our ownership group asked that we not comment on this right now,” McConn said.