Riverside urban infill Spokane's biggest project in decades
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Steel rails, wooden cross-ties and canvas tents on the riverbanks marked this farm and railroad town's start.
Now, a developer is looking at an abandoned train yard to launch an economic future that includes concrete condominiums and walks on a bluff overlooking the Spokane River.
Billed as the city's largest urban infill project in decades, Kendall Yards sits on 80 acres on the north bank of the Spokane River in the northwestern corner of downtown.
The site is essentially a blank slate, with no decrepit old buildings that need to be torn down, or renovated, as occurs in most urban redevelopment projects.
A former railroad locomotive repair yard contaminated by spilled fuel, it was transformed during a yearlong "brownfields" cleanup that won national awards.
Now, Marshall Chesrown, a Spokane native who made his fortune selling cars with Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, is developing the mixed-use pedestrian neighborhood that has been called a boon for Spokane's anemic economy.
"To really grow Spokane's economy, you need an influx of outside capital," Chesrown said during a recent interview in the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, headquarters of his Black Rock Developments, which builds exclusive residential and golf community projects. "Someone's got to be willing to take the risk."
As envisioned, the Kendall Yards project will build 2,600 residences and 1 million square feet of commercial and office space with an "urban village" look. Initial plans call for a 20-year buildout of the entire $1 billion project.
Kendall Yards is the largest urban planning venture in Spokane since unsightly railroad yards in the middle of the city gave way to a world exposition in 1974.
When completed, the Kendall Yards project will include upscale condominiums and residences and retail shops that are pedestrian and bicycle friendly.
"It may be the most significant piece of developable property in the country," Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession said. "It's the single-most significant construction project in the history of the city. It changes the landscape of downtown."
Hession jumped on board early and took the unusual step of creating teams within city departments to facilitate the project. The city created nine more positions in its Building Department to handle the anticipated Kendall Yards work load.
"There will be a lot of unique challenges," Hession said. "We will be dropping a huge development into the middle of an urban area."
Despite the city's helpful attitude, an impatient Chesrown complains the process of getting permits and approvals for the project "was a little more cumbersome than it should have been."
Spokane needs to change the way it approaches development to adopt a more business-friendly attitude, said Chesrown, who concedes his Black Rock Developments haven't done a lot of mixed use projects.
"To find 80 acres in the core of a city anywhere in the United States, we don't think it exists," said Chesrown, calling his project "a once in a lifetime opportunity for Spokane."
Andy Kunz of NewUrbanism.org said Kendall Yards appears to be unique because it is being built on land never before developed, but there more than 4,000 "new urbanist" projects planned or under construction in the country; half of them in historic urban centers.
NewUrbanism.org is an organization that promotes the creation and restoration of pedestrian-friendly mixed-use downtown communities of homes, offices, shops and parks with increased use of trains and light rail.
Two similar urban infill projects are being developed in former railyards in cities near Washington, D.C., he said.
Construction of the 20-acre, $300 million first phase of Kendall Yards is scheduled to start this spring, with residents moving in and retail businesses and offices opening by the spring of 2008, Chesrown said.
The project has encountered few objections and even urban and environmental advocates have embraced the project, with reservations.
"It is profoundly going to change the neighborhood," said John Osborn, a doctor and Sierra Club official who lives in the adjacent West Central neighborhood.
Osborn and his wife, Gonzaga Law professor and environmental activist Rachel Paschal Osborn, applaud the project's environmental and urban density goals.
But several aspects of the proposed development bother the Osborns and their neighbors, who appealed a hearing examiners' approval of the project.
"We were quite concerned about impacts in the Spokane River corridor. Spokane Falls and the river canyon are what set Spokane apart from any other American city," Osborn said. "Our concern is, if you add thousands of people along the rim ... you are profoundly changing the river corridor."
Osborn and others also fear a wall of condominium towers, some 12 stories tall, along the river.
Activsts also aren't happy that the Kendall Yards development doesn't offer any low-income housing, and they forced the city to conduct traffic studies.
Chesrown picked up the property after another company's grand plans ended in bankruptcy.
Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities had approval in 1992 for a planned unit development called the Summit Property with 1.5 million square feet of commercial space and 1,500 housing units.
When the Spokane securities firm went bankrupt, Chesrown's company scooped up the property for $12.8 million.
Chesrown was selling cars in Denver when that city was developing an urban renewal project called LoDo, a historic district with a mix of commercial and residential uses.
He's not above borrowing good points of that successful redevelopment, as well as what has worked for his upscale Black Rock communities in northern Idaho, Chesrown said.
"I just view this region as having so much opportunity," said Chesrown, who got into the real estate development business after selling his auto dealerships.
"I was bored stiff," he said. "I tried retirement for about six hours. It didn't work for me."
Now, a developer is looking at an abandoned train yard to launch an economic future that includes concrete condominiums and walks on a bluff overlooking the Spokane River.
Billed as the city's largest urban infill project in decades, Kendall Yards sits on 80 acres on the north bank of the Spokane River in the northwestern corner of downtown.
The site is essentially a blank slate, with no decrepit old buildings that need to be torn down, or renovated, as occurs in most urban redevelopment projects.
A former railroad locomotive repair yard contaminated by spilled fuel, it was transformed during a yearlong "brownfields" cleanup that won national awards.
Now, Marshall Chesrown, a Spokane native who made his fortune selling cars with Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, is developing the mixed-use pedestrian neighborhood that has been called a boon for Spokane's anemic economy.
"To really grow Spokane's economy, you need an influx of outside capital," Chesrown said during a recent interview in the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, headquarters of his Black Rock Developments, which builds exclusive residential and golf community projects. "Someone's got to be willing to take the risk."
As envisioned, the Kendall Yards project will build 2,600 residences and 1 million square feet of commercial and office space with an "urban village" look. Initial plans call for a 20-year buildout of the entire $1 billion project.
Kendall Yards is the largest urban planning venture in Spokane since unsightly railroad yards in the middle of the city gave way to a world exposition in 1974.
When completed, the Kendall Yards project will include upscale condominiums and residences and retail shops that are pedestrian and bicycle friendly.
"It may be the most significant piece of developable property in the country," Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession said. "It's the single-most significant construction project in the history of the city. It changes the landscape of downtown."
Hession jumped on board early and took the unusual step of creating teams within city departments to facilitate the project. The city created nine more positions in its Building Department to handle the anticipated Kendall Yards work load.
"There will be a lot of unique challenges," Hession said. "We will be dropping a huge development into the middle of an urban area."
Despite the city's helpful attitude, an impatient Chesrown complains the process of getting permits and approvals for the project "was a little more cumbersome than it should have been."
Spokane needs to change the way it approaches development to adopt a more business-friendly attitude, said Chesrown, who concedes his Black Rock Developments haven't done a lot of mixed use projects.
"To find 80 acres in the core of a city anywhere in the United States, we don't think it exists," said Chesrown, calling his project "a once in a lifetime opportunity for Spokane."
Andy Kunz of NewUrbanism.org said Kendall Yards appears to be unique because it is being built on land never before developed, but there more than 4,000 "new urbanist" projects planned or under construction in the country; half of them in historic urban centers.
NewUrbanism.org is an organization that promotes the creation and restoration of pedestrian-friendly mixed-use downtown communities of homes, offices, shops and parks with increased use of trains and light rail.
Two similar urban infill projects are being developed in former railyards in cities near Washington, D.C., he said.
Construction of the 20-acre, $300 million first phase of Kendall Yards is scheduled to start this spring, with residents moving in and retail businesses and offices opening by the spring of 2008, Chesrown said.
The project has encountered few objections and even urban and environmental advocates have embraced the project, with reservations.
"It is profoundly going to change the neighborhood," said John Osborn, a doctor and Sierra Club official who lives in the adjacent West Central neighborhood.
Osborn and his wife, Gonzaga Law professor and environmental activist Rachel Paschal Osborn, applaud the project's environmental and urban density goals.
But several aspects of the proposed development bother the Osborns and their neighbors, who appealed a hearing examiners' approval of the project.
"We were quite concerned about impacts in the Spokane River corridor. Spokane Falls and the river canyon are what set Spokane apart from any other American city," Osborn said. "Our concern is, if you add thousands of people along the rim ... you are profoundly changing the river corridor."
Osborn and others also fear a wall of condominium towers, some 12 stories tall, along the river.
Activsts also aren't happy that the Kendall Yards development doesn't offer any low-income housing, and they forced the city to conduct traffic studies.
Chesrown picked up the property after another company's grand plans ended in bankruptcy.
Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities had approval in 1992 for a planned unit development called the Summit Property with 1.5 million square feet of commercial space and 1,500 housing units.
When the Spokane securities firm went bankrupt, Chesrown's company scooped up the property for $12.8 million.
Chesrown was selling cars in Denver when that city was developing an urban renewal project called LoDo, a historic district with a mix of commercial and residential uses.
He's not above borrowing good points of that successful redevelopment, as well as what has worked for his upscale Black Rock communities in northern Idaho, Chesrown said.
"I just view this region as having so much opportunity," said Chesrown, who got into the real estate development business after selling his auto dealerships.
"I was bored stiff," he said. "I tried retirement for about six hours. It didn't work for me."