The Carlyle Hotel in Spokane has sold to Portland investors

Once a potential home for the next model of the House of Charity, the former Carlyle Hotel has instead been purchased by a group of Portland investors.

The group led by Rudy Munzel, owner of Ascent Design Build, recently purchased the building at 206 S. Post St. for $2.14 million from Seattle-based nonprofit Pioneer Human Services.

Hilary Young, vice president of advocacy and philanthropy at Pioneer, said in an email that her organization, which has provided low-income housing in the building for the past 13 years, can no longer financially support the program.

“The program has suffered significant losses over the past 13 years and was unsustainable,” Young said in an email.

Rob McCann, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington, said his organization looked at Carlyle for three days before Ascent Design Build stepped in with an offer.

“Carlyle is one of five different locations that we’ve looked at and explored over the last three years as possible places to bring a new level of trauma-informed care to those experiencing homelessness in Spokane,” McCann said in an email.

He said the idea is to convert the former seven-story hotel, which has about 74 units, into something similar to the Catholic Charities Eastern Washington Catalyst project, which created transitional housing in a former Quality Inn. It opened in December 2022 for about 100 people.

“Within days of first exploring it as an option with the city of Spokane, we heard from other downtown stakeholders that they felt the location was too close to downtown,” McCann said. “Within days of that time, we learned that another offer for Carlyle had already been bid and it was a much more attractive offer, in a quicker time frame for the owners than anything we could offer.

“At that point, we abandoned any pursuit of Carlyle as a viable option for Catholic Charities.”

Reached Friday, Munzel said he was traveling and could not discuss his group’s plans for the Carlyle.

But he told the Spokane Journal of Business that he and his group’s plans for the next two years will honor the existing agreement to keep 51 percent of the units for low-income renters.

“Our long-term goal, after these agreements go away, is to phase it into market-rate housing,” Munzel told the Journal.

Built in 1892, the seven-story Carlyle Hotel fell into disrepair until 2000, when Jim and Fay Delegans began a $12 million renovation. Debt from the upgrade hampered the Carlyle, and US Bank foreclosed on the building in 2006.

The city of Spokane purchased the building that year and began looking for buyers willing to support Carlyle’s mission. A series of failed bids followed. Then, in late 2010, Pioneer made an offer of $3.46 million.

The nonprofit bought the building the following year after lowering its offer to $3.2 million.

Munzel said the building will require improvements, including to the heating and cooling systems.

“A building that age always needs investment, so we’ll be investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in upgrades for most of the equipment. The units are not in bad shape and there have been many improvements to the building,” Munzel said.

While the Carlyle can be renovated for new uses, McCann continues to find a solution for the community it supports.

“Looking at several sites over the last few years, with none coming to fruition, demonstrates how difficult it is to locate any social service facility or housing of any kind in any part of the Spokane region,” said he. “Unfortunately, we live in a time in our country and in our community where virtually any proposed social service facility, especially those that could serve people experiencing homelessness, is immediately met with opposition from almost every neighborhood or area we are exploring.”

He called that opposition “heartbreaking.” Catholic Charities has 2,600 apartments for lower-income individuals and families in central and eastern Washington, according to the organization’s website.

McCann also noted that Catholic Charities has added four new housing projects this year that are fully funded and ongoing.

“We continue to look at all options and all locations, and we will continue to serve the poorest of the poor in our community in the most trauma-informed way that respects both the people we serve and the neighborhoods in which we operate,” McCann. said.