Ascentium set to move its Spokane operation

Ascentium Corp., the Bellevue, Wash.-based technology and marketing consulting company that acquired Spokane-based Aurora Consulting Group late last year, plans to move its Spokane office to the Legion Building, in downtown Spokane.

Amy Cleary, Ascentium's director for Inland Northwest operations, says the company has leased about 3,500 square feet of office space on the fifth floor of the Legion Building, at 108 N. Washington. The space includes part of the building's columned balcony, which will be located off the company's conference room, she says.

Improvements to the office space are scheduled to be completed in November, and the Spokane office of Ascentium. then will move there from its current, smaller quarters at 1522 N. Washington, north of downtown.

Steve Schmautz, a Spokane developer who owns the Legion Building with his wife, Tresa, says that once Ascentium moves into its space, the building will be about 85 percent occupied.

The Spokane office of Ascentium currently employs five people, all business consultants and technologists, Cleary says. The former Aurora operations largely have been integrated into Ascentium's Bellevue operations, she says. Aurora founder Beth Britt now works at Ascentium's corporate headquarters as director of enterprise project management.

Aurora had operated in Spokane as a technology and management consulting firm for seven years. Just over three years ago, Aurora had 12 employees and disclosed plans to hire 18 to 38 people, though it's unclear whether those plans for growth ever came to fruition.