GU plans $50 million in projects

Journal of Business, Nov 8, 2007 by Gustafson, Jeanne

Gonzaga University says it plans to construct a greatly enlarged student center and a 600-space, three-level parking garage and retail center over the next three years at a total cost of more than $50 million.

The projects will provide more space for student activities and overflow parking tor the McCarthey Athletic Center, says university spokesman Dale Goodwin.

The first of the projects the garage, is expected to get under way next year, and they're both expectedto be completed by 2011 based on current fundraising projections, he says.

In addition, the university is preparing a third project which will involve renovating the 50,000-square-foot W.P. Fuller & Co. building, at 111 E. Desmet, to accommodate six new classrooms and eventually as many as 60 faculty offices, says. It recently bought that 91-year old structure for $1.4 million and plans to rename it the Fuller Academic Center Ken Sammons, Gonzaga's plant services director, says the full cost of that project hasn't been determined yet.

The proposed new student center is expected to be about four times the size of the current 35,000-square-foot COG building and will replace it, also using what is currently a parking lot next to that building at 702 E. Desmet.

Sammons says the new student center is expected to cost $40 million to $45 million, and will include more space for clubs, class activities, and student body offices, as well as house a new bookstore. He says the final size and configuration of the new building hasn't been determined, though the university already is raising funds through donations for its construction.

Sammons says no architect or contractor has been selected yet for the planned student center. He says he anticipates those decisions will be made sometime in the spring.

Once the new student center is constructed, most of the functions currently housed in the Crosby Student Center would move to the new center, Sammons says. He says initial discussions have been that the Crosby Center would become a student services center where such services as financial aid, student employment, and career services would be centrally located. Currently, career services are in the Crosby Center, but most other such student services are located in

College Hall, which Sammons says was formerly the Administration Building.

The university's board of trustees has approved proceeding with the design of the parking garage, which will take up the block bounded by Boone Avenue, Cincinnati, Desmet, and Hamilton streets, across from David's Pizza, Goodwin says. A 150-space surface parking lot currently is located there.

The garage is expected to cost $9 million and to include 14,000 square feet of retail space on its ground-floor level, Goodwin says. He says the university will pay for the structure through a combination of bond funds, parking fees, and retail leases.

Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane; ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane; and the Spokane office of Bellevue-based DCI Engineers Inc. have been selected to work jointly on that project, Sammons says. He says the university hopes to begin construction of the parking garage next spring and to complete it about a year later.

Once the garage is completed, Gonzaga plans to move its student dining services from the COG to the retail space on the first floor of the garage for up to two years as it builds the new student center.

Walker Construction Inc. of Spokane, will serve as the general contractor for the Fuller building renovation. Wolfe Architectural Group PS and Shine Architectural Design, both of Spokane,are designing the project, Sammons says.

The long-vacant Fuller building includes a four-story main building with a basement parking level that was built in 1916 and a single-story structure to the east that was constructed later. It currently is little more than an empty shell, but Sammons says the university plans to install windows and electrical infrastructure throughout the structure within the next month or two at an expected cost of $600,000 to $800,000.

Additional work expected to start next spring will include remodeling the east wing of the building into classroom space, converting the first floor of the four-story tower into a lobby, and creating 20 faculty offices on the tower's second floor, he says. The university doesn'tplan to improve the building's upper two floors immediately, but those floors would be able to accommodate another 40 faculty offices later, he says.

He adds that using some of the Fuller building for university offices will free up classroom space elsewhere on campus that had been converted to offices as the university had grown.

Gonzaga University had been seeking to buy the Fuller building for about a decade, Sammons says. Its former owners, the Fuller Building Limited Partnership, earlier had planned to convert the building to retail space and condominiums.