If you've driven or walked through downtown Spokane in the past few weeks, you've likely noticed that Post Street is closed for construction between Sprague and Riverside avenues. Large fences surround the street as scaffolding alongside the historic Peyton Building completely blocks some of the block's east sidewalk.
The street will look like that for at least 14 months as the building's vacant offices are turned into apartments.
Since the $33 million makeover began in early January, some businesses operating on the first floor of the Peyton Building have reported a decline in foot traffic. At Cochinito, co-owner Travis Dickinson says he's seen a 22% to 25% decrease in sales compared with the same period a year ago; and at Volstead Act, owner Roman Harner says sales have decreased by about one-third for the same time last year.
"There's so many factors, so it's a little tough to pin down the reason, but I see us being down, and I see some other folks downtown kind of being busy," Dickinson says. "So it tells me that some of it is the fact that we're a little harder to see than normal."
Business on Post Street has always relied on foot traffic, since Post dead-ends at the River Park Square mall. Many people who visit Spokane and stay at Hotel Ruby, the Steam Plant Hotel, or the Historic Davenport or Davenport Tower hotels will walk to the mall or other shops and restaurants because it's more convenient than driving.
That walkability has made Volstead Act, a bar at 12 N. Post St., a staple for more than a decade, Harner says. Now, the eastern sidewalk along Post Street, where Volstead's entrance is, has been partially closed to make room for scaffolding, while the street's western sidewalk remains open.
"When the entire road is blocked off, it definitely kind of obfuscates the ease of access," Harner says.
The scaffolding on the building and the tarp-covered fencing around Post Street creates an obscure cove that folks need to travel into to enter Volstead Act. Though that has impacted foot traffic, Harner says the Spokane Valley-based contractors at T.W. Clark Construction have worked to make it easier for pedestrians to find the bar by adding lights along the fence and hanging a new neon sign from the scaffolding outside the bar's front door.
The construction was initially supposed to start in late 2024, but the building's owner and landlord, Jordan Tampien, says he pushed back the start date to allow the affected businesses to get through the holiday season, when sales are higher and events draw more visitors to town.
Overall, Dickinson feels that the contractors and the building owner have been willing to work with business owners when problems come up. When a pipe burst in one of the vacant spaces in the building, causing the heat at both Cochinito and Volstead Act to shut off recently, he says it took three groups of plumbers chasing the problem for it to finally be fixed.
"When the furnace goes down here, it's not as simple as just calling the furnace guy. It's this giant antique boiler system with pipes that go all different directions," Dickinson says. "It wasn't that nobody was trying to fix it, it was just a hard fix."
OUT WITH OFFICES
For Tampien, building owner and co-founder of 4 Degrees Real Estate, this project stemmed from a desire to repurpose some of the city's older buildings from vacant office space to housing — an idea that's become more popular post-pandemic.
"Since COVID, office-use needs have reduced quite a bit. The good news is that here in Spokane, we kind of have an advantage that many other cities don't have, and that's that we have a really good stock of historic buildings," says Steve MacDonald, Spokane's director of community and economic development. "They may not make great office buildings all the time, but they make really good, interesting housing units that people want to live in. That's why we support projects like the Peyton Building."
After some time searching for the right place, Tampien says he landed on the seven-story Peyton Building at 10 N. Post St. and its annex at 722 W. Sprague Ave. For years, the ground floor has been home to local restaurants, bars and other businesses, while the rest of the building was dedicated to office space. Tampien plans to transform the building, adding 96 apartments, with a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom units, at market rate. Since construction is estimated to finish in 14 months, Tampien says it's too early to know what the rents will be.
With tenants on the first floor and the lack of space to place construction materials — hence the street closure to fence in materials and equipment — Tampien says this is one of the most complicated projects he's worked on.
"Our hope is that this project attracts people over the long haul, but the reality is, it's just not going to be a fast process," he says. "We're trying to do everything we can to help the businesses, because we want them there for a long time."
COMMUNICATION
One of the most difficult things about this project has been a lack of communication from the developer and the city, Harner says.
Since this is a private development project, it's not really the city's place to communicate with affected businesses, says Tami Palmquist, director of Spokane's Development Services Center.
"When we did [construction on] Monroe Street or when the city did Sprague Avenue, then yes, that's the city's responsibility to go in there and work with those property owners because we're inconveniencing them," Palmquist says. "But when it's a private development, it's really on the property owner to communicate with those surrounding businesses."
Tampien says he's given the business owners as much information as he can as soon as it's been available. For example, when he was gearing up to close the road to begin construction, he let them know.
"We met with [the businesses] because we got a two-week notice that our contractor [was] ready," Tampien says. "I think some of the changes and differences there were transitioning from me being a communicator to now the contractor communicating."
To their credit, Harner says, the contractors who have been out working on the construction every day have been extremely communicative with him.
"Once this is all done, if the construction goes through perfectly, and everything finishes on time, it should be a boon for the downtown community and for our establishments as well," Harner says. "But a year to a year and a half of having our entire street blocked off is a long time to make business difficult for a business that already doesn't have great margins." ♦
