The Jensen Byrd District will be a HUGE step forward for Downtown Spokane if built out to it's full potential. Currently the area is a historic area with little activity other then a few WSU programs and some small businesses. But, the Jensen Byrd District would likely bring in a lot of new activity to this almost forgotten corner of the Lilac City. For those who don't know the building and the purposed Jensen Byrd District is just east of Downtown Spokane, north of Sprague Ave, and South of Trent / Spokane Falls Blvd. .
Plans for the Jensen Byrd District include-
-Converting much of the current Jensen Byrd Building into office / commerce space, designed ideally for Tech Companies, Biotech, Life & Health Sciences , IT businesses and more. All of which could mean new higher paying professional jobs for Spokane. Plans are for the district as a whole to have over 150,000 square feet of new class A office space.
-New retail / restaurant space , three of the buildings in the Jensen Byrd District are being marketed for some retail / restaurant space, including 30,000 square feet of retail space on the lower levels of the Jensen Byrd Building alone. Also, the nearby Pacific Fruit & Produce Building would keep it's historic shell but be replaced by several thousand square feet of new restaurant space.
-A new parking garage to accommodate the newly boosted neighborhood .
-Attached to the aforementioned parking garage would be space for a new 45,000 athletic club and then some more new retail space.
-And, last but certainly not least plans call for adding a new 14,000 square foot roof top conference center to the top of the Jensen Byrd Building itself. The Conference Center would also have outdoor gardens, a full catering kitchen on site and a lounge.
Of note however is just how huge and costly this plan is, because of this don't expect everything to open up overnight, in fact it will be built out in phases ( 2 phases currently ) .The contractor will be Lydig Construction building off of design work done by architecture firm WAG. Washington State University does still own the building and it will be developed by JB,LLC which is a partnership that McKinstry Spokane is a part of.
Actual construction work could begin as soon as this fall, and construction would like continue on for several months as portions of the project would require a de-construction of the existing spaces as well as the actual build out. With this said, the wait would surely be worth it as this plan would bring new jobs, new businesses and new life to a large section of Downtown.
One factor that is important to note with the plan for the new Jensen Byrd District is it's lack of a residential component . Despite it being located right in the heart of a prime student housing area none of the buildings include condo's , apartments or anything for people to reside. While a residential component would surely have been welcomed to keep people in the Downtown area, several new residential project are already underway just blocks from the site. These include the 940 North apartment high rise , a purposed new apartment building along the East Sprague corridor where a car dealer sits today and even a purposed high rise, which may or may not be stalled, to be built over top of the former Auto Repair shop at N. Division & Trent.
Because of copyrights I won't be posting photos or renderings of what the finished product buildings will look like in the Jensen Byrd District. Instead I invite all my readers to check these and more out on the newly created official Jensen Byrd District website at-
http://jensenbyrd.com
The Jensen Byrd website is an excellent resource for those hoping to establish their business in the new neighborhood . Leasing work is now underway via SVN Cornerstone Real Estate for all types of spaces in every building from the Jensen Byrd to a brand new four story building purposed to be built directly next door to the Jensen Byrd. In all the new district consists of four main buildings and three that are unrelated to the main project but still on the site ( WSU Vet , River Bank office building and the Ignite Northwest complex ) .
To get a better idea of the area this project is purposed in take a look at this Youtube video...
We would love to know what you thing of this new Jensen Byrd District, is the wrong type of development or will become an important cog in the Spokane community? What businesses would you like to see go in there?
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