4 days, 23 hours, 20 minutes...

4 days, 23 hours, 20 minutes...As of this posting that is the amount of time remaining in the life of the Rookery Block's last two structures:  The Rookery and the Mohawk.  It appears as if this drama has about run it's course.  Wendell Reugh, of Reugh Construction in Spokane has decided that if Ron Wells does not have a deal in hand by October 31st, the wrecking ball will start swinging the next day.  His gift to Spokane: another surface parking lot.

The development of these parcels didn't need to be so difficult.  A number of firms gave it a try.  Some more than one.  Residential and commercial projects in and around the core are increasing, but for some reason getting this one to pencil for developers was like herding cats.  It's easy to point the finger at Wendell Reugh.  He's made his fortune in this city [some of you may be living in an apartment or home his firm constructed], bought this block when it was worth little, has recently sold off a number of his properties for un-godly amounts, and yet still insists on increasing the price anytime a deal gets close.

If nothing else, Wendell Reugh and the Rookery debacle represents our culture's preference for greener pastures, the next best thing, fad, trend, etc.  For quite a number of years downtown was yesterday's news.  Until recently, opportunity was anywhere but downtown, and as such we've collectively abandoned them; "demolition by neglect" as someone once put it.  It also reflects a populace that is either too preoccupied or overly passive to care about such things.  We're not quite sure which, but take your pick.

So, in an odd kind of way, are we the ones responsible for the Rookery Block's [or the next building in our core that comes crashing down] tragic ending?  Maybe.  It's hard to say.  But think about the Rookery Block the next time you drive through the Hillyards, or the East Centrals of our City.  These places have been declining for years, and are at the same place downtown was fifteen years ago.  So what are we going to do about it?

Comments

[Mary Schade]

I do not think these buildings should 3be demolished, I am ashamed to live in A society that does not see value and beauty of past treasures such as these fine buildings. I live in Millwood and will always be sad that the old Millwood school was demolished for an Albertsons store

[Trevor Holms Petersen]

Please, someone needs to save this block!

[Dennis LaPrade]

This would be a great time for Reugh to donate the buildings or simply sell to someone who actually cares about this city. Well after he finally dies, this will forever be his legacy he once hoped for a parking lot to call his very own.

[SpoVegas]

You hit the nail on the head: the price keeps going up. The price to get someone in to do a deal went from $2mil to $4mil to $4.5mil to now well over $5mil. There's no way for someone to do a "win-win" deal with Reugh, because the feasiblity goes in the toilet when you've got to outlay so much just to get the buildings.

Take a look at my post http://www.spovegas.com/blog/2005/11/rookeryschmooke.html for evidence that the City should stay away from a $5mil+ deal for the property.

Also, consider my Proposed Surface Parking Guidelines. If the City is going to tackle the "historic building vs. surface parking" battle, it will need to have something more concrete than just another protest, another "public/private partnership", and a case-by-case strategy. Make surface parking expensive to implement and a good addition to the city if it does go in, and then you're likely to have a real debate and developers encouraged to keep buildings up. But as long as the zoning, comp plan, business and building permits keep flowing out of city hall for chain-ringed surface lots that are cheap to build and make money, things aren't going to change.

The fault lays equally here for Reugh for jacking up the price and City Hall for failing to tackle the comp plan zoning requirements for surface parking lots at the source and keeping an incentive for people to do just what Reugh is doing.

[MK]

I think the city should get involved and those buildings should be saved. Yes there is a budget crisis and yes the River Park Square deal was a mess. But those buildings will be here long after the budget crisis and long after anyone remebers the River Park Square mess. Those buildings are irreplacable, they are part of the history of Spokane, and they are worth saving no matter what the cost. I'll be writing my Council member to let them know I support such a deal.

[Brian]

SpoVegas is right, but while I agree with his economic argument for surface parking (if it's making money, there's no incentive to change it/build condos/etc), I disagree about how to fix it. A couple of specific tweaks to the Code ought to do the trick.

First, allow developers to pay fees instead of meeting the parking requirements in the Code. Make the fee less than what it costs to build the number of parking spaces required, and it becomes a no-brainer. That way, the amount of surface parking downtown at least levels off, and maybe declines, because developers won't have to sink money into providing parking lots (or garages).

Second, I think there ought to be a downtown core area parking authority, which caps rates, manages supply (which means they actively seek, via city council testimony, reports, etc to deter more surface parking), and (eventually) runs public parking garages along the edges of the downtown core or along specific corridors.

Another solution might simply be to impose taxes on off-street parking within the downtown core that make the price of parking too high for people, which will regulate the supply.

Yes, these might be drastic measures, but downtown Spokane is hollowed-out, and the valley-dwellers are imposing the costs of miles of parking on those of us who live in the city.

I'm not against parking - after all, we need places to put our cars - but I think we can make more efficient use of our downtown area.

[Brian]

Re: downtown Spokane parking authority idea - it apparently could levy a tax on motor vehicle sales in the city (maybe even on gas, but I'd have to look into that more) - if Sound Transit can do it, so can a downtown parking agency.

(click on my name to go to the case itself - the URL's too long to fit in the comment space.)

[Dennis L.]

a parking authority works great in Portland.