By David Bodamer, Associate Editor 

AUGUST 22, 2003 -- Nearly five year's worth of investment has revived downtown Spokane, Wash., enabling the small city to once again act as a regional hub of activity.

Despite its relatively small size--it has a total population of 200,000 and a MSA of 500,000 today--the city has a long history of being a city destination for residents of Eastern Washington, Idaho and even parts of Montana. It is the second largest city in Washington after Seattle and you won't find a bigger burg going east until you reach Minneapolis. Spokane even hosted the 1974 World's Fair.

But the city fell on hard times and bottomed out in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It lost downtown department stores leaving entire city blocks blighted and the historic Davenport Hotel, a five-star luxury destination, shuttered its doors in 1985.

But since 1999 more than $1 billion has been poured into more than 400 projects throughout the city. The 90-year-old Davenport reopened in 2001 after more than $30 million was put in to renovating the project. The Fox Theater, an art-deco movie house built in 1931, is also getting a facelift.

It will eventually house the Spokane Symphony.

Developing River Park Square, a $115 million outdoor shopping center built on the former World's Fair site, was one of the prime catalysts to Spokane's revival. Talk about that project began in 1995 and opened in 1999. The facility is anchored by the region's only Nordstrom and features a 20-screen AMC Theater along with 32 other stores. Another factor has been the city's aggressive use of historic preservation tax breaks. In 2002, 13 projects were granted $27 million in breaks earmarked for historic buildings. The rest of the state combined had only $30 million. Use of the credits has continued this year on about a half dozen more projects.

"The key project back in 1995 was the idea of River Park Square. As that was put together, Spokane also put together a downtown partnership and business improvement district," said Mike Edwards, who has been president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership for about five years. "That made Downtown clean, safe, fun, and leveled the playing field with the suburbs so developers would be more comfortable coming downtown as opposed to going to a greenfield site."

Edwards noted several other projects as key to Spokane's continued resurgence. The city is expanding its convention center from 40,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet to help it attract bigger shows. It has spent $28 million to build the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.

The next step, he said, lies in the residential arena.  "For the last six months we've spent a lot of energy in market rate housing," Edwards said. "We're looking at downtown loft space, condos, townhouses."
 

About 200 units are in the works this year with 55 under construction another 150 proposed. But Edwards said that studies show the city has the market for 300 units per year for next five years. "For many that's the big missing piece," he said.