Kitchen Spokane- Commerical kitchen incubator opens

There are places already to rent commercial kitchen space in Spokane, but a new business called Kitchen Spokane is taking that business concept to an all new level.

Kitchen Spokane is a business incubator of sorts that allows small business owners in and around Spokane to rent their fully licensed and health dept. approved commercial kitchen space to grow their business. And in the case of this new business, Kitchen Spokane's space will be available to rent by the hour.

The Kitchen Spokane commercial kitchen space is fully stocked with equipment and has the potential to save small businesses thousands of dollars.

Kitchen Spokane is a locally owned and operated business conveniently located only a few blocks east of Downtown at 923 E. Third Ave.

The facility is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and offers quite affordable rental rates that can even be booked online via their web site.

In addition to the commercial kitchen rental service, the business also offers on site storage space for foods, etc...

For more information on Kitchen Spokane find them online at-

https://squareup.com/market/kitchen-Spokane

And, find them on Facebook at-

https://www.facebook.com/KITCHENSPOKANE

Organic market & deli opening in Liberty Lake

Ok, so no, Liberty Lake will not be home to a chain like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's anytime soon but instead one better, a new locally owned and operated organic grocery store.

The new market will be called Liberty Lake Organic Market and is supposed to open sometime within the next couple of weeks, although no official grand opening date is known as of right now. The business will occupy a end cap space in the strip mall at 21980 E. Country Vista Blvd. just west of Liberty Lake Rd.

Liberty Lake Organic Market will be a full grocery store selling many locally sourced foods in addition to hard to find gourmet food items. The store will run specials and promises to have a good organic produce selection and a selection of gluten free items. And per their web site the market will offer these items at affordable prices with a friendly, helpful staff.

For more on this new business, find them online at-

http://www.libertylakeorganics.com/

And be sure to like them on Facebook at-

https://www.facebook.com/LibertyLakeOrganicMarket

New mixed-use building coming to Kendall Yards

Looks like the business district of Spokane's Kendall Yards neighborhood will soon be progressing a bit more eastward towards Monroe Street and Downtown soon.

This will happen with the addition of a brand-new mixed-use building proposed to be built at 1104 W. Summit Pkwy in the heart of Kendall Yards.

The new building will be called Highline II and will likely be very similar to the existing mixed-use building currently on the North side of Summit. The building will consist of ground floor retail space and two floors of residential apartments above.

Plans call for 9000 square feet of commercial space and 18000 square feet of apartment space ( 24 new apartments) .Construction is expected to begin very soon at the site with a completion date is tentatively scheduled for sometime early next year.

There is no word of any new businesses planning to open in this building as of yet. And we will be watching for any renderings of this building to be released soon.

For more information on Kendall Yards, visit them at www.kendallyards.com

Mod Pizza coming to Spokane

With aggressive expansion plans that includes new locations as far away as Austin and Houston,Texas, the Seattle based Mod Pizza chain will be coming to Spokane soon.

Mod Pizza will be one of the new businesses opening at the Regal Plaza shopping center on Spokane's South Hill. This is the only confirmed location coming to Spokane as of now and it will open around April of 2015.

The new Spokane Mod Pizza's address will be 1304 E. Palouse Hwy. Suite A and will create about 30 - 40 new jobs in all positions. The restaurant will occupy about 2,500 square feet of space there with an additional 600 square feet of space on a outdoor patio.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mod Pizza, here's the info about their company via it's Facebook page-

MOD Pizza serves up individual artisan-style pizzas and salads made on demand. Customers can design their own pizzas and salads or select from a menu of MOD classics. All are the same price regardless of toppings. The handcrafted pizzas are then fired in our 800 degree display oven and ready to eat in less than 5 minutes. MOD also offers milkshakes, house-made iced teas and lemonades, locally sourced draft beer and wine.


And, a couple sample pictures of their restaurants and pizza's-

For more information on Mod Pizza find them at-

www.modpizza.com

Or via Facebook at-

www.facebook.com/MODPizza

Spokane Food Park coming

Foodies and food truck fans alike will want to take note of this new business in the works now in East Spokane.

That new business is the Spokane Food Park , a year round food truck pod opening at a former used car lot site on the corner of E. Sprague Ave. and S. Perry . A sign at the side currently reads Sprague Food Park but will soon be changed to the new Spokane Food Park name.

The Spokane Food Park will be open year round with a covered, heated dining area included at the park. The site will have enough room for 10 food trucks and / or food carts and is scheduled to open for business early next year.

There are no officially announced tenants for the Spokane Food Park as of yet. But we do expect these coming soon.

New tenants at Riverstone

Earlier I credited the brokers and agents over at Kimele & Hagood Company for taking Downtown Coeur d' Alene's Resort Plaza Shops from a half empty shopping center to a full center with 3 new businesses opening or opening soon there. But one of their bigger success stories in Coeur d' Alene is north of there at Riverstone.

The lifestyle center style shopping center near the I-90 / Northwest Blvd. exit has gone from a stalled group of buildings and select businesses a couple of years ago to a full shopping district with some of Coeur d' Alene's hottest stores and restaurants.

But, now there are a few more new openings coming to Riverstone, including two new fitness businesses, perhaps making Riverstone a hub for health and wellness businesses in North Idaho. Here are the latest openings ( and yes, one closing ) at the mixed use development-

Cork & Tap

The Cork & Tap opened for business this past weekend at 2034 Main in the heart of Riverstone. The small locally owned and operated business is a beer and wine shop. The business has both a retail sales area and a in store tasting room.

Pretty Angel Botanicals

Selling a selection of aromatherapy oils, healing and wellness products and related gifts is the Pretty Angel Botanicals now open at 1970 Beebe around the corner from the ReMax real estate office at Riverstone.

This business is also locally owned and operated. The business owner also once owned a similar shop inside a Las Vegas Strip casino.

Exercise Institute

Moving to a new storefront space on Beebe Dr. next door to Pretty Angel Botanicals is a location of the Exercise Institute chain. The business is actually relocating and expanding into this space from their current location in the nearby Merritt Creek Office Park.

The new Riverstone Exercise Institute will open after the space is remodeled. The business provides personal fitness training in a unique 15 min. workout format.

Physzique Coeur d' Alene

Also providing a work out via personal training is the Physzique Fitness chain which will open in one of the larger available spaces at Riverstone ( actually leased by Goodale & Barbieri Company ). That space is the former furniture store at 2048 Old Mill Loop.

Physzique is tenitivly scheduled to open on Jan. 12th 2015.


And now for the lone closing ( actually a move ) at Riverstone-

Pick 6 Sports Cards

Pick 6 Sports Cards which had been on Main about a block away from the Regal Cinemas in Riverstone has moved out of the shopping center.

The business can now be found in the Harbor Center building just north of Downtown Coeur d' Alene. Their new address is 610 W. Hubbard Ave. Suite 107 , but the business actually faces Northwest Blvd.

Pick 6 Sports Cards is full sports shop with a good selection of sports cards but also some sports memorabilia for sale.

Big changes coming to Oz Fitness, to become MUV Fitness

Spokane's Oz Fitness chain of gym's will be seeing some big changes in the near future. That's because Oz Fitness has been acquired by a couple of investors from the Seattle area that formerly owned locations of Vision Quest Gym's on the Western side of the state.

The new owner will invest a significant amount of money into the business including the coming rebranding of the chain to MUV Fitness.

The new MUV Fitness will feature personal training programs with a lot of things still staying the same. All current locations of Oz Fitness will remain open and will be transformed with no job cuts planned. In fact, the newly re-launched MUV Fitness may someday expand westward to the Seattle area and possibly even some expansion locally.

Oz / MUV Fitness can be found locally at-

603 E. Holland Ave, North Spokane

5501 S. Regal , South Hill

14927 E. Sprague Ave. , Spokane Valley

809 W. Main Ave, Downtown Spokane

1515 S. Pacific Technology Blvd. , Airway Heights

For more information find them online at-

www.ozfitness.com

Anthony's Beach Cafe now open on the South Hill

(Photo credit- Anthony's Resturants on Twitter @AnthonysrestsNW  https://twitter.com/AnthonysRestsNW )

Now that the new South Hill Target at Regal Plaza is up and running it's nice to see some of the other planned tenants opening up for business there as well. Yesterday a grand opening was held at one of the most highly anticipated business in the project, Anthony's Beach Café.

Anthony's Beach Café is owned and operated by Anthony's Restaurants, the same people behind the very popular Anthony's at Spokane Falls, overlooking Spokane Falls in Downtown Spokane. However this new Beach Café is a more laid back, casual version with a somewhat different menu.

The new restaurant is modeled after the type of restaurant one would expect to see while visiting the beach. Dinner service is available now, with the business being open from 4pm - 9pm and lunch service will begin very soon, on Thurs. Oct. 23rd from 11am - 4pm.

The new Anthony's Beach Café takes up 4,000 square feet with seating indoors for 106 and additional seating for 70 in a outside dining area. In addition the new restaurant features a open exhibition kitchen with counter seating.

At their grand opening event, Anthony's Beach Café raised $49,200 for the Nazareth Guild’s Fr. Coughlin Scholarship Endowment, which serves to provide tuition assistance to ensure that educational programs will be available to all students in all income groups. The grand opening event was well attended with many local icons in attendance.

Anthony's Beach Café is located within Regal Plaza at 2912 E. Palouse Hwy on the South Hill.

For more information on Anthony's Beach Café find them at-

http://www.anthonys.com/

Opening and closing restaurants - Oct. 20th 2014

Whisk

From the same owners as Pacific Avenue Pizza comes a new small bar in the up and coming eastern edge of Downtown Spokane. The new establishment is called Whisk and is small place now open at 17 W. Main.

In addition to the drinks at Whisk, a menu of pizza's are also available.

Marijane's TapHouse Grill

The name, Marijane's may point out the unique thing about this new sports bar in Spokane Valley. Marijane's is located at 11420 E. Sprague Ave ( former Ringo's Casino ) which is also home to members only cannabis club.

Marijane's TapHouse has beer, wine and a full bar with a food menu and many sports games shown.

50/Fifty closed?

After only a few months open we're hearing that the sports bar 50/Fifty on Indiana Ave. in Spokane Valley may be closed for good. We trying to find out the truth behind this and a reason why.

Tree of Life Deli

Tree of Life, a unique organic restaurant located on Schneidmiller Dr. in Post Falls has closed their doors. The business had a decent menu of sandwiches, sweets, etc.. all of which organic. But unfortunately couldn't make it too long in their somewhat hard to find location.

The Local Deli

The Hayden location of Caruso's has left the chain to go 100% local , even with their business name. The menu will be different but still a great deli.

The Local Deli can be found at 113 Prairie Shopping Center within the Prairie Shopping Center near the corner of US 95 and Prairie Ave. in Hayden

Pho Thinh

A new Vietnamese / Pho restaurant called Pho Thinh is opening in the former Pizza Hut near the intersection of W. Francis Ave. and N. Division in North Spokane.

Pho Thinh's address is 6022 N. Division.

Guice

A new smoothie drive up called Guice opened recently on the South Hill. Guice can be found at 4502 S. Regal.

La Plaza de Mexico

Filling the building at 9420 E. Sprague Ave. that was last Tacos Tumbras is a new restaurant called La Plaza de Mexico.

La Plaza de Mexico will also be a Mexican restaurant with drinks and a menu for both lunch and dinner.

Honeywon Café

A new restaurant called Honeywon Café has opened up at the Rock Pointe Corporate Center in Spokane.

Honeywon is taking about 2,600 square feet of space for their business which will serve both American and Asian menu options.

Coeur de Breizh Crepes

Coeur de Breizh is a crepe food truck that made a name for itself over the first part of the year at the Kootenai County Farmers Market and a few other events in and around Coeur d' Alene.

But now Coeur de Breizh has a permanent home location for the truck nearby the CdA Costco store at 3615 N. Government Way . The truck has many crepes for all tastes on their menu and is open most everyday and even now offers online ordering.

Casual Friday Donuts

Even though it didn't close down like once thought might happen, Spokane's Dawn of the Donut has had some big changes.

The former zombie themed donut shop has been sold and changes have been made to the interior and exterior already. The biggest change is the shop is no longer zombie themed.

The business is being rebranded as Casual Friday Donuts and is now owned by the same people that are behind Celebrations Bakery another local baking business.

Timber Gastropub?

We're still waiting on the all the official info on the new business going into the former Hot Rod Café building in Post Falls.

But design firm HDG Hissong + Hurtado Design Group has now shared a small group of exterior renderings of what the new place will look like. And, on their renderings they show the establishment as a business called Timber Gastropub.

Photo's of the new Timber Gastropub are now on HDG's Facebook page here-

https://www.facebook.com/studiohdg

Real Estate Corner: The big hole Downtown

I haven't posted a real estate corner posting for sometime because for some reason it brings a lot of spam messages / e-mails. But to help get the big hole at the corner of Third and Division I figured I'd try once more.

So, if your looking to relocate your business or invest in prime Downtown commercial real estate please take a look...

New business openings & closings - Oct. 15th 2014

Here's a few of the new businesses coming and going from the Spokane / Coeur d' Alene area-

Farmgirlfit

With one location already open in Spokane, the Farmgirlfit fitness center business has expanded to Coeur d' Alene. The Farmgirlfit CdA location is in the 2900 block of N. Government Way in a small shopping center just a north of the Les Schwab tire center.

Urban Apothecaries Spokane

Supplement and sports retailer Sound Body has rebranded and is now open, still in their original location at Five Mile in North Spokane. The shop is open with some new products, etc... at 1902 W. Francis Ave. Suite 125 .

Spokane Bicycle Co.

A new bicycle sales and bicycle accessory shop opened over the summer in Downtown Spokane. The new business is called Spokane Bicycle Co. and can be found at 125 S. Stevens Ave.

Lucky Detour

Looking vintage and other home décor items? Then take a "detour" over to Lucky Detour, a new vintage business in Spokane's Vinegar Flats neighborhood. The shop is owned Celeste Shaw who also owns Chaps Restaurant, not far from where Lucky Detour is located.

Lucky Detour is at 1930 S. Inland Empire Way.


And, over at Silver Lake Mall in Coeur d' Alene....

A couple of new business have set up shop recently at Silver Lake Mall. They include...

Lost & Found Antiques and Treasures

Scarlett Golf Experience - an HD style golf simulator business.

Hickory Farms - Seasonal shop, Opening soon. Additional locations will also be likely in Spokane's malls

Wake Up Call Coffee to open new location in Spokane

Often recognized as of the best coffee shops in Spokane, The Wake Up Call is expanding it's reach. The company already operates a few locations locally, all of which fall within Spokane Valley. But, that will soon change as the Wake Up Call is planning to open a shop inside the city limits of Spokane.

Above, is a rendering of the new Spokane Wake Up Call which is now scheduled to open sometime in early 2015. The location will be at 3526 E. 5th Ave. which falls within the Freya / Thor couplet just a couple of blocks east of the Thor Fred Meyer.

The new Wake Up Call on 5th Ave will be similar most of the locations with the shop featuring a small walk in coffee shop and dual drive thru lanes. Also this new location will offer the long daily business hours which start at 4am during the week.

Wake Up Call already operates four locations, all of which will remain open. Those locations can be found at-

1106 N. Pines Rd.

112 N. Evergreen Rd.

210 N. Sullivan Rd.

1703 S. Dishman Mica Rd. ( Drive-thru only )

For more information on Wake Up Call find them via these links-

www.wakeupcoffee.biz

https://www.facebook.com/wakeupcallcoffee

New life and tenants coming to 304 W. Pacific, Downtown Spokane

I mentioned the large brick warehouse building at 304 W. Pacific in Downtown Spokane not too long ago as the place where the Terrain art exhibition was hoping to set up their first year round art gallery / performing arts center. And while that effort, nicknamed The Campaign for Terrain, is now underway, it looks like even more then just that effort is also underway for 304 W. Pacific.

304 W. Pacific is more commonly known for being the former Washington Cracker Co. .
The building is located on the southern edge of Downtown Spokane on the end of Pacific Ave., which has also been nicknamed Spokane's Creative Alley for it's already numerous creative business, making Terrain a perfect fit. The street has also been the site of several of Spokane's most exciting building renovation projects, that even includes the now under construction project over at the former Cold Storage building in the 100 block.

Plans call for Terrain to take 4,000 squrare feet of the building for their new gallery. But also included for the building are the following-

- A new tasting room for the local winery Overbluff Cellars.

- A un-named coffee shop

- Fellow Co-Working , a co-working business, that's currently over on Howard, also in Downtown Spokane. Fellow was started and is operated by Luke Baumgarten who is one of several people who are behind Terrain.


The building, despite it's size, has sat largely empty in recent history. Because of this the building will need major construction to bring it back into use. Construction will start soon, with the building to be completed sometime early next year.

Some additional uses may also become of the left over space within the building. These spaces will likely be for office uses and possibly even a residential use.

Red Tail at the Arena opens inside the Spokane Arena

The Coeur d' Alene Casino is expanding the reach of it's Red Tail Sports Bar with a new location, this time in Spokane.

The Casino recently partnered with the Spokane Public Facilities District to bring Red Tail to a new space within the Spokane Arena. The new bar is called Red Tail at the Arena and is smaller then the original but has an impressive view.

Red Tail at the Arena is on what the Arena called Spotlight Landing and is the only space with a landing looking out into the main arena for prime viewing of all events including Spokane Chiefs games which is where this picture was taken from-

But, Because my cell phone takes really poor photo's here is a picture directly from the Spokane Arena Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/spokanearena ) -

Red Tail at the Arena is the third bar to open for business within the Arena. The first was Absolut Grill which is on the concourse nearby the northwest entrance. Absolut has a full bar and a food menu.

The Arena's other full bar is the Jameson Pub, a Irish bar also on the concourse. Centerplate has operates several concession stands and a couple of other vendors also sell within the Arena.

For more info on Spokane Arena, and the many upcoming events visit their web site-

www.spokanearena.com

Chipotle Mexican Grill is coming to Coeur d' Alene

I'm calling it, the long running rumor of the Chipotle Mexican Grill chain opening in Coeur d' Alene is true. I now have multiple reliable resources saying that the company has signed a letter of intent locally with building permits and official announcements coming in the near future.

The new Coeur d' Alene Chipotle Mexican Grill will be built along Appleway near the intersection of Appleway and US 95. Design work on this new location is already underway, but there is no opening date yet. The building will actually be a new construction raising from what is currently a parking lot by the existing Tomato Street Restaurant.

As of now no construction has started, so no hiring has started. We will keep checking for news on the job front including how many jobs this new business will create.

Chipotle Mexican Grill already has a location in Spokane, which will also remain open. That location is at 930 N. Division in the University District.

For more information on Chipotle visit them at-

www.chipotle.com

Washington Trust Bank to renovate / move into Ridpath Annex

Earlier today I posted about the recently uncovered plans to renovate the large building at 119 S. Stevens into retail and office space after sitting largely un-used for sometime.

But also coming soon to the exact same neighborhood is another renovation project affecting another long time vacant building. I, unfortunately have very little about the exact plans on this one.

Washington Trust Bank has acquired the former Ridpath Annex, which was historically a "motor inn" style addition to the Ridpath Hotel located across First Ave. from the main hotel building. The building has been empty for sometime although there was once a plan to turn the building into condo's , all plans for that have since fallen through however.

Washington Trust Bank will renovate the entire building for their own office space. The bank has filled all it's available office space it uses in the Washington Trust Financial Center at 717 W. Sprague, a skyscraper on the Western side of Downtown Spokane an continued growth within the bank has prompted their need for the new building.

There is no word as of now about what departments of the bank will be located within the Ridpath Annex or how many new jobs this new office space will create.

Also, the Ridpath Annex is attached via a skybridge to the main Ridpath Hotel. I have no news on wither or not it will stay or be removed. The main Ridpath Hotel is planned to also be renovated into a large new apartment complex. That project is still planned, although is running late due to excessive and unexpected water damage when a pipe burst earlier this year.

Renovations coming to 119 S. Stevens, Downtown Spokane

On the north side of Downtown Spokane, Walt Worthy's Grand Hotel Spokane project has spawned a few renovations of buildings. But it looks like the coming renovations at the Ridpath Hotel ( to become apartments ) is beginning to spawn a few new construction projects in it's more southerly Downtown neighborhood.

One of which appeared last week as a predevelopment conference on the City's web site. That is the plans for renovations at 119 S. Stevens. The building is owned by Evergreen Parking who already uses part of the property for parking as is.

The building on the site is a 5 story largely empty brick building which faces Stevens and is directly along the railroad viaduct, just to the South of 1st Ave.

While renovations plans could change, the current plans show adding parking with a small two story parking structure. Inside the building the ground floor plans call for 2 bays of retail storefront space (about 1,000 square feet each ) facing Stevens along with a new office tenant space behind the retail space.

The upper four floors of the building will be converted to more office space. Plans show two office spaces on each of the upper floors with about 6,000 square feet of total space on each floor.

We will continue to watch for more on these plans like tenants, construction dates , etc...

Nodland Cellars moving Downtown, with BIG plans for a prime Downtown building

Nodland Cellars, a Spokane Valley based winery has announced they plan to expand into a prime space in Downtown Spokane. Until their opening Downtown the business will remain in Spokane Valley's Montgomery East Commercial Center at 11616 E. Montgomery Ave.

Nodland Cellars will lease a space on the ground floor of the Chronicle Building at 926 W. Sprague Ave and will renovate the space into a new wine tasting room , jazz club and restaurant. Work will begin soon ( if it has not as of this posting time ) with an opening planned to be sometime early next year. No date for this has been set however and there is no news on new business names / new job numbers. However it assumed some new jobs will be created by this new Downtown Nodland Cellars location.

The new location is just one of many wineries to locate in the Downtown core area. Also, the location within the Chronicle Building will allow Nodland to be a part of the city's arts and entertainment district with The Fox Theater, Bing Crosby Theater and Knitting Factory Concert House all within only a few blocks.

The winery will also keep their Spokane Valley location with plans calling for additional wine production space being added after the tasting room relocates.

For more information on Nodland Cellars visit them at-

http://www.nodlandcellars.com/