Interest rates and affordability have been major factors in stagnant commercial and residential real estate markets in Spokane and Kootenai counties this year, according to some industry experts.

In 1986, the Spokane real estate market was comprised of a central business district-centric office market, strip center retail with one open-air mall on the North Side, and an industrial sector of older buildings with low ceiling heights that dominated the Spokane Industrial Park. With interest rates in the low teens, new development was limited and most ownerships were local.  

As the CEO of my family’s third-generation, 75-year-old commercial construction and development company, ... I love my team, I love what I do, and I love Spokane. Spokane has given my family and I so much, and just like one of our construction projects, its future is quite literally under construction.  

Spokane-based real estate and development company Bornhoft Commercial is closing its doors, says designated broker and founder Chris Bornhoft, who will be joining Spokane-based real estate company SDS Realty Inc. in January. 

A new Midwest Motor Express Inc. truck dock is being planned in Spokane's Hillyard neighborhood, according to a State Environmental Policy Act application filed earlier this month.

A new Trader Joe’s grocery store is under consideration at a former Shopko building in Spokane Valley, at 13414 E. Sprague.

A permit application for a new Topgolf facility, full-service restaurant, and bar in Liberty Lake has been filed this month by developers known for their work on other Topgolf locations around the country.

Spokane Regional Land Holding Properties LLC has sold its first property to an affordable housing developer and has a growing pipeline of projects, showing the organization’s model is beginning to take hold.

A 24-unit townhome project has been proposed at 7724 N. Austin Road in the Five Mile Prairie neighborhood of North Spokane.

Palisades Christian Academy is planning a new $2.2 million early learning center.