SPOKANE, Wash. – Downtown Spokane certainly has issues right now with homelessness, drugs and crime. But could the key to breathing new life into downtown lie within its historic past?
A group of local developers believe downtown is worth saving and a big step in its revitalization could come in renovating some very old buildings.
Chris Batten is the owner of RenCorp Realty, which specializes in renovating old buildings. His latest project is the Wharton Building on W. First Ave.
“This is a really unique block,” said Batten. “I think it’s the only one downtown, maybe not, but where you have the original storefronts all the way through.”
Built in 1901, it once housed Spokane Paper Company and an Elks Lodge. In the 1990s, it was rebuilt to house the restaurant, “Thai on First.”
The new look Wharton Building will have a bookstore cafe and a Korean restaurant on the street level and 17 one (bedroom) and studio loft style apartments upstairs.
Batten believes one of the keys to bringing downtown back to life is to get more people living downtown. The belief is having more people downtown will make it more vibrant and, in turn, safer.
Josh Hissong, the founder of HDG Architecture, also believes Spokane needs more people living downtown. Hissong says right now, about 95% of buildings in downtown Spokane are commercial retail. He believes getting closer to a 50/50 split between commercial and residential buildings is key.
“And that way, you can withstand any sort of economic woe that occurs because you have people living downtown, going to the mall, going to Wooden City and Nudo and all the restaurants.”
But renovating an old building is costly. In fact, it costs quite a bit more than starting from scratch and building new.
“Huge expenditure to bring a building up to code for life and safety,” explained Hissong. “And that is like proper exiting. Egress on a building. You need to have two separate, full staircases going through these old, brick buildings, which is difficult with the way that they were built. Then you have sprinkler systems. You have energy compliance.”
But in renovating other old buildings, Batten has learned to leverage tax incentives and credits. The Wharton Building received a rebate from the state’s new Commercial Building Conversion program, passed earlier this year, and now being touted by the City of Spokane’s Planning and Economic Development Dept.
“This is the first building in the state to get awarded that program,” said Batten. “So we won’t pay sales tax on the cost of construction. So converting this old building makes sense.”
The Wharton Building will be on the national register of historic properties, so he’ll get a federal tax credit as well.
And while the incentives are a good start, Hissong thinks the city can do even more to help developers.
“They also have to take some of that money that they’re allocated by the state and federal level and decide to help with these developers to make these buildings retrofitted.”
Batten says the city also needs to enforce all of its laws to clean up downtown’s issues with homelessness, drugs and crime.
“There’s certain laws that aren’t necessarily being enforced maybe as aggressively as they could be. And it’s a complicated conversation, obviously.”
Right now, Spokane only has about 1,400 apartments downtown, so it needs a lot more to bring it back to life.
“I think there’s momentum right now to say, ‘hey, we need a thousand new units in the next three to five years,'” said Batten. “So I mean, that adds to the livability, the safety and the security of downtown.”
But Batten believes that number is doable, just like he believes in the benefits of preserving and renovating Spokane’s oldest buildings.
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