Spokane has 210 new apartments where a dirt parking lot used to sit, and the people moving in are the teachers, nurses and first responders who keep the city running.
Kōz on West 5th was built on a former surface parking lot just south of Interstate 90. The developers, Kōz Development and the investment firm Catalyst, said in an Oct. 2 announcement that the $53 million project was delivered in September. Developers and city leaders cut the ribbon that week, and Spokane Public Radio reported that people have already started moving in.
How a parking lot became housing
The project is the largest so far to use Washington's Parking to People incentive. The state created the program in 2022 for cities with populations between 150,000 and 250,000, and the developers say Spokane was the first city to put it in place. In exchange for building housing on underused parking lots, developers get a break on sales tax for materials and labor. To qualify, at least half the units have to be affordable at 80% of area median income or below.
Kōz on West 5th went well past that. All 210 units are priced below 80% of area median income. The developers estimate the tax break saved about $4.2 million, which they say made that level of affordability possible.
"We could not have done this project without that exemption," Cathy Reines of Kōz Development said in the announcement. "The numbers just didn't work."
City Councilmember Zach Zappone, who helped push the program forward in 2023, told SPR the project goes "above and beyond the requirements." He said affordable housing is one of the things elected officials hear about most. "And there's a great debate about what's affordable and what's not affordable," he said.
Spokane Planning Director Spencer Gardner put it more bluntly. Before the project, he told SPR, a satellite view of the property showed "a dirt lot with a couple of cars parked on it."
"What does that dirt lot do for the city? Very little. In fact, it's probably a net negative because that can attract bad uses and things," he said.
Who it's for
Kristian Peterson, managing partner at Catalyst, said the building is meant for the people who power Spokane's economy. He pointed to the city's six universities and its large healthcare sector.
Those workers, Peterson said, "deserve housing they can actually afford."
JPMorganChase, an investor in Catalyst's fund, helped make the project possible, according to the announcement. "Workforce housing developments like Kōz on West 5th allow more people to live closer to jobs and opportunity," said Diana Kolar Leach, who heads fund investing for the bank's impact finance group.
This is the second project from Catalyst and Kōz together. The first was Kōz on MLK, a 161-unit development in Tacoma that the partners say showed what their shared model can do. Kōz says it has completed nearly 2,500 units since it was founded 12 years ago and has more than 1,500 more in production.
Why it matters for Contractors
A $53 million, 210-unit building is real work for a mid-sized city like Spokane, and the way it got built matters as much as the size.
Parking to People takes the sales tax off construction materials and labor. On this project, the developers say that came to about $4.2 million. That kind of savings can be the difference between a project that pencils out and one that sits on the shelf. Reines said as much: without the exemption, the numbers didn't work.
The program applies to lots that were used for parking on or before June 2022, SPR reported. Every lot that qualifies is a potential building site. For contractors, that could mean more infill apartment work in and around downtown, close to where crews already live and work.
The program also has a built-in limit. It's aimed at cities between 150,000 and 250,000 people, so it isn't a statewide answer. But Spokane has shown it can work, and city leaders like Zappone say they want to see more projects like this one.
Contractors who build multifamily housing should keep an eye on which Spokane parking lots change hands next and get to know the developers, like Kōz, who know how to use this tool.