Santa Express open in Downtown Spokane

Sure Santa Express isn't in it's first year being open. However it's what this seasonal retail store does for kids and the community that makes it's annual opening so beneficial. Santa Express gives kids the chance to shop for their parents and other loved one's, on their own,teaching them shopping skills and those all important budgeting skills.

At Santa Express children are matched with a store volunteer and then taken behind a curtain to where they can shop, purchase and even wrap up the gifts to give to their loved ones on the holiday. Santa Express also features a small selection outside of the curtained off area so adults can shop some too.

And to top it all of, Santa Express is a non profit store. The store each year helps to fund the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery . In fact last year's store sale provided over 60,000 dollars to assist the shelter.

Santa Express is located on the 2nd floor of the Cresent Court Building at 707 W. Main St in Downtown Spokane (inbetween River Park Square and the STA Bus Plaza).

For more info on Santa Express visit-
http://www.vanessabehan.org/events/santa-express/

The Bozzi Collection opening in Downtown Spokane

Bozzi, is a well known name around Spokane due in great part to efforts of Bozzi Media. Bozzi Media is locally owned and operated magazine publishing company that publishes such popular local magazine's as Spokane Coeur d' Alene Living and Inland Business Catalyst. Also company owner Vincent Bozzi owns 3 of the businesses inside of the Flour Mill.

But now the Spokane's Bozzi businesses is growing by 1 with the opening of The Bozzi Collection . The new store is seasonal but could,possibly become full time. But what is so special about this new store? They are creating a new way to shop local for the holidays. The shop is best described as a combination gift shop and art gallery. The stores art,gifts and crafts come from local vendors,many of which have even been featured in the pages of Spokane Coeur d' Alene Living.

Also planned to be for sale at The Bozzi Collection will be local souvenirs and specialty foods. And the some items will change from week to week so plan to visit often at this new 100% local retail store.

The Bozzi Collection is located in Downtown Spokane, on the skywalk level between Macy's and River Park Square. Almost directly over top of The Olive Garden.

If you would like more info on The Bozzi Collection or for info on how you can get your arts and crafts sold in their store please call 509-990-7925 or visit them on Facebook at:
www.facebook.com/bozzicollection

Fire closes 2 new local businesses

Sadly 2 new businesses in Spokane Valley are now closed, at least for the time being after a fire ripped thru their building at 17927 E. Appleway Ave. in the Green Acres area of Spokane Valley.

The 2 businesses affected our The Handle Bar and Hell Yeah Cycles. The businesses had only been open for a little under 2 months and had some delays in opening as well. The owner is said to have insurance but it is not known if the building will be re-built or the businesses re-opened. I will update as soon as I hear anything on these business re-opening.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Mattress Discounters opens in Spokane / Coeur d' Alene

The closure of the Spokane and Coeur d' Alene area Sleep City stores may not have been a bright spot for our local retail scene. However some of those now closed stores are re-opening,still as mattress stores but under a new name and brand. That brand is Mattress Discounters and is new to the local market.

Mattress Discounters will take over the stores at 3916 N. Division  in Spokane , 10 N. Sullivan Rd. in Spokane Valley and in Coeur d' Alene at 348 W. Bosanko Ave. New stores will also open nearby our area in Yakima and Richland

Mattress Discounters is based in Rocklin,Ca. and operates a over 70 stores in California, Oregon, Nevada and Washington. They have been in business for over 30 years and are continueing to expand their reach.

For more info on Mattress Discounters visit-
www.saveatmd.com

Sleep City closed in Spokane / Coeur d' Alene

The Missoula,Montana based mattress retailer, Sleep City has closed it's stores in the Spokane and Coeur d' Alene area. The closure happened sometime in the last few weeks and came as a surprise to some.

Sleep City sold off it's stores and inventory in at all stores in Washington and Idaho in October.A press realese from then gives no offical name of the buyer or any other info. The closure also included a store at the intersection of Division and Empire in Spokane that had only been open a couple of months.

While the Spokane area Sleep City stores are gone, a new mattress retailer is coming to town,more on that in another new post,tomorrow...

A new home for Coeur d' Alene Schools

The Coeur d' Alene School District #274 has found a new home for it's administrative offices. The district will likely move sometime in February of 2013 to there newly leased building located at 1400 Northwood Center Court,nearby the Northwest Blvd. / Seltice Way intersection in Coeur d' Alene.

The move was viewed as a necessity because the district's current offices ,located on 10th St. , close to Downtown Coeur d' Alene, are severly outdated and are quickly becoming un-usable. The old offices will be torn down sometime next spring after the district moves out.

The new building is also more conveinent to the district's schools which are scattered thru out the city.A plan was once also considered for building a new office by the district's Midtown Center campus but that plan was quickly scrapped after preliminary estmates came back over budget.

The building on Northwood Center Court will come with a cost of 21,000 a month for 9 months and at the end of the 9 months the district will have the option to purchase the building for 2.2 million dollars. Payment on the purchase of the new building will be made by selling off excess property elsewhere in the city, including a property the district is too sell to the city. That property is part of Person Field, another property up for sale is along Atlas Rd. by Northshire Park.

Dick's Sporting Goods is open in Spokane Valley

The new Dick's Sporting Goods store is now open in the Spokane Valley. The store opened to the public earlyer this month and is located at the Spokane Valley Mall.For more on who Dick's is and what to expect read the post below.

This info was orginally posted on October 17th:

Pittsburg,Pa based Sporting Goods retailer Dick's Sporting Goods will be coming to Spokane Valley Mall's strip mall in the parking lot. Dick's which is under construction now will take over the space that was Wholesale Sports after Wholesale moved to Northtown Mall earlyer this year. In all Dick's will take over about 45,000 sq feet of retail space.

This will be the first Dick's Sporting Goods location for the Spokane market area, although the store does operate stores currently in Western Washington. The new store will employ about 75 people and sell items for sports ,camping , golf ,hunting and fishing. Also they plan to sell state hunting and fishing licences.

The opening date for the Spokane Valley Dick's Sporting Goods will be November 9th and for more info on Dick's visit-
www.dickssportinggoods.com

Benewah Medical Center is now open in Plummer

The small town of Plummer, located along US 95 on the Coeur d' Alene Indian Reservation, is a good drive from medical assistance like a major hospital. Even Coeur d' Alene is a 45 min drive to the north. The local Benewah Medical Center is the town's only medical facility but it's small facilities have lacked adequate space for the region's needs.

But all that has thankfully has changed with the opening a couple of weeks ago of the all new Benewah Medical Center building on the north end of town. The new building is about 50,000 square feet and took about 17 million dollars to construct. Building design work was done by NAC Architecture.

The medical center provides everything from basic check-up's to urgent care and even specialty care. Counselling, physical therapy and pharmacy services are also available on site. And for added healing ,the medical center is directly affiliated with the local wellness center. The wellness center provides a pool and other fitness programs to Plummer area residents, both Native American and non for a membership fee.

For more info on the new Benewah Medical Center in Plummer visit-
www.benewahmedicalcenter.com

Spokane International Airport upgrades

Although mostly minor upgrades this time around, The Spokane International Airport has put a lot of time and money into a few upgrades recently. All of which are geared towards improving the experience for passengers and customers coming in and out of GEG.

The new project at Spokane International include...

-A new cell phone parking lot
         This new bigger cell phone parking lot is in a new location this time closer to the terminal. The new lot is located directly on Airport Dr. on the opposite side from the main parking lot and parking garage entry. The new cell phone parking lot is a lot where visitor may park and wait to pick up passengers who in turn call by cell phone. The old lot was along Flint Rd. still on the Airport campus but a longer trip.

-A new mobile website.
  Now when users log into the Airport's website at www.spokaneairports.net using a iPhone, Android or Blackberry type mobile device they are connected into a new mobile version of the main web site. The new site allows users to navigate thru the Airport on the phone and get up to date flight arrival and departure times. The user can even share their flight info on Facebook and Twitter directly from the new mobile website.

-A new SRE building
 SRE stands for Snow Removal Equipment and now this winter Spokane International is even more ready for the new snow and ice with a new storage building to house the Airport's SRE equipment. The new building is expected to be complete sometime early next year.

- Newly resurfaced parking garage helixes
The helix's are the spiral exit ramps on the side of the parking garage across from the Terminal. During the month of October those ramps we're completely resurfaced and will now have increased traction for car tires during the upcoming winter months.

Spokane International Airport also will launch service to Hawaii in early 2013 ( info on that here-  http://inlandbusiness.blogspot.com/2012/08/allegiant-air-lands-in-spokane.html  ). And the Airport is also continuing to work on establishing flight service between Spokane and LAX. More on that flight connection hopefully soon.

For more info on on Spokane Internation Airport visit-
www.spokaneairports.net

Central Food joins the Downtown Spokane dining scene

It's official, Downtown Spokane's newest restaurant is also one of the first commercial tenants for the Kendall Yards Development, along the north bank of the Spokane River. Central Food which is located at 1335 W. Summit Pkwy and is owned by popular local chef , David Blane.

But just what kind of food does Central Food offer? According to Chef David on the restaurant's Facebook page,Central Food has no theme,no ethnicity, no genre, just food. But one thing is for sure the new restaurant will serve local and regional foods,something that has become very popular in the national culinary scene in recent years.

Central Food also offers an outdoor dining patio overlooking the Spokane River and Downtown Spokane. The location will also make the restaurant a hub for the Kendall Yards residents ,who should increase greatly in the coming months.

For more info on the new Central Food visit their Facebook page at:
www.facebook.com/eatcentralfood