Kent Hull, managing partner of the development partnership Iron Bridge LLC, tells GlobeSt he doesn't expect the small market to swallow the elephant whole. Rather, construction and delivery of the proposed office product will be doled out over the course of five to six years.

Construction on the first building, a 23,000 2-story concrete tilt-up with a brick veneer façade, will come this spring if the city approves its application for a shoreline conditional-use permit and binding site plan, the decision on which is due by the end of the month. A tenant for one-half of the building is all but locked up, and the project's leasing agent, Kimle & Hagood, is on the hunt for the balance.

Next up will be a three-story office, which Hull anticipates will be constructed on speculation. "Right now it's laid out for about 70,000 sf, but we may go a little larger," he adds.

The last three buildings Hull says will run in the range of 80,000 sf to 90,000 sf—depending on demand and tenant needs. While plans now have them sketched in for offices, they could be morphed to accommodate some high-tech manufacturing if a tenant were looking for that type of build-to-suit opportunity.

Somewhere between 18 months and two years from now, Hull says Iron Bridge will get a 156,000-sf parking structure, capped on the river side with another 20,000 sf of offices. A restaurant is also on the boards, and two national chains have been in discussions with Iron Bridge, but construction will be a few years out.

Hull has been preparing the site for development since 1998, and it has been no small task. "We've had almost 20-acres' of concrete blocks to remove," quips Hull. In its previous incarnation, the site was home to a concrete-products manufacturer for several decades.

Iron Bridge was originally envisioned as a light industrial park. But when the high-tech market shifted sharply in 2000, Hull and his nine partners, including his wife, took the tactical turn to offices, a market for which has remained relatively strong in most areas of Spokane.

The assignment has not been handed out for the duration, but Hull says Divcon, Inc. will be the general contractor on at least the first building--if not all. David Evans & Assoc. is handling the engineering, and Ron Joseph of Seattle is Iron Bridge's architect.

Instant Insights /

$60-Mil Iron Bridge Office Campus Close to Starting Gate

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