The project, scheduled to commence in February, will add 88,000sf in four new floors. Tom Skierka, a spokesman forDeaconess/Empire Health, declined to specify leasing prices for newspace as Deaconess is "in the midst of negotiations with severalmedical groups." Skierka says even though Spokane's "medical core"includes eight blocks of office buildings, demand still outweighsavailability. The Deaconess project was a response to "increaseddemand for on-site space for physicians, medical and clinicaloffices."

Spokane's hospital facilities are burgeoning. Empire Health alsoplans a $20 million expansion for Valley Hospital & MedicalCenter at 12606 E. Mission. Scheduled for a June start, the projectwill add 33,000 sf. Sacred Heart Medical Center recently announcedits intention to build a children's hospital, to be housed in anaddition to its existing facility. "This area is growing, andpeople can't always go somewhere else for health services likeheart operations," says Skierka. "Spokane needs better facilities,and the community has a goal of becoming the regional medicalmecca."

Support services are growing in tandem with the medicalindustry. Tech Group Inc., a nationwide provider of temporarymedical staffing (nurses, technologists, therapists), is movingfrom 6,500 sf in Paulsen Center to the 16,000-sf IntegrusArchitecture building it purchased for $540,000 from BillColacutico of Post Falls, ID. The building, located at 242 W. MainSt., had been vacant for three years. Following a renovation, thecompany expects to move in next October, and expand into it overthe next few years.