Clover's bakery, becoming Bellacrosta Bakery & Fine Foods, with retail storefronts

Clover, a popular Logan Neighborhood restaurant and bar has operated their own small bakery in a secondary building on their property since opening the business a few years ago. The bakery's items have become a favorite of many, while not actually open to the public, except via the restaurant and wholesale account locations.

But, now the wholesale sales have caused Clover to move forward with plans to branch off the bakery into a new separate business, with locations open to the public coming soon. The bakery will be renamed Bellacrosta Bakery & Fine Foods and will be based out of a commercial kitchen space in Spokane Valley. The 3,000 square foot space is reportedly already being remodeled for Bellacrosta, but we have not obtained to exact location in the Valley as of writing this post.

Bellacrosta Bakery & Fine Foods will be a full service bakery. The products made by Bellacrosta are made only with fresh, high quality ingredients, using local ingredients when possible. I think this picture says it all about the amazing creations of what will be Bellacrosta-

 

And, as mentioned before plans are for Bellacrosta Bakery & Fine Foods to have multiple retail storefronts open in the Spokane area. The new HQ kitchen space is to open early next year, with 2 or 3 storefronts also likely opening in 2016. No set in stone locations are set yet for Bellacrosta's storefronts. Although plans are for bakery storefronts in Downtown Spokane, Spokane Valley, South Hill and North Spokane.

 

For more information on Clover's Bakery, who is still on the same site as Clover for right now. Visit their website at-

 

http://cloverspokane.com/bakery

 

Or, find them on Facebook at-

 

http://www.facebook.com/bellacrosta.bakery

 

Clover will also still have bakery items from the new business, and will stay at their current location at 913 E. Sharp, just east of Gonzaga University in Spokane. 

New Washington Federal Bank building almost complete in North Spokane

One of the larger building construction projects in the Division St. corridor, the new branch / regional headquarters for Washington Federal Bank is almost complete. The new two story building, which is next to Thai Bamboo at 5322 N. Division.

The primary tenant of the new building is Washington Federal Bank, a Seattle based financial institution who only came to Spokane last year. The bank operated an temporary branch a block south of Northtown Mall, not far from this building. That branch will close and be consolidated in with the new building's branch. Washington Federal also operates several small town branch locations in our area after purchasing a collection of Bank of America branches not long ago.

Space will also be available for lease in the 17,000 square foot building. Leasing of the other office spaces is being done by Spokane's Kiemle & Hagood Company. Included in the still available office suites is two 2,000 + square foot spaces on the lower level and ground floor, and a larger almost 5,000 square foot space on the second floor. Signage and ample on site free parking is also made available to all new tenants of the new building.

For information on leasing space inside the new Washington Federal Bank building, check out this PDF from the leasing agents-

http://www.commercialmls.com/Media/PDF//photos/pdf/fl/567657_1.pdf

And, for more information Washington Federal Bank, visit their website at-

www.washingtonfederal.com

Disappointing restaurant news from Downtown Spokane

While Downtown Spokane is still a hot spot for restaurants, with a new, bigger Twigs Bistro now open, The Onion's remodel and possibly a new Spokane restaurant from a contestant on Top Chef coming soon. But, amidst all the restaurants still open, there has been a couple of spots of disappointing news, including...

MacKenzie River Pizza , Grill & Pub closes it's doors Downtown

MacKenzie River Pizza has closed down their Downtown location after 2 years of operation at 818 W. Riverside Ave. The closure is likely because this location never really attracted enough customers. In fact it was opened after the chain had a location of Ciao Mambo Italian in the same location.

It is important to note however MacKenzie River Pizza is a chain establishment, and this is the only location that has closed locally. Two more locations still exist in the Spokane, they include...

MacKenzie River Pizza- North Spokane -
9225 N. Nevada

Mackenzie River Pizza- South Hill -
2910 E. 57th Ave. Suite E

Plan to open Knife Burger Bar abandoned

A group of local restaurant owners have scrapped plans to open a new restaurant called Knife Burger Bar in Downtown Spokane. The plan suffered several delays due to issue with their plans vs. the historic building, which is also the reason for walking away.

Knife Burger Bar was originally planned to be in the former Agave Latin Bistro space in the Michael Building at the corner of Sprague & Lincoln. The space will now likely go back up for lease, along with a smaller storefront in the same building which was once rumored to be developed into a new coffee shop.

West End Lofts , mixed use development coming to Downtown Spokane

It was only about 5 months ago, I reported on the sale of Downtown Spokane's Norman Building ( 1121 W. 1st Ave ) and the Jefferson Building ( 115 S. Jefferson ) . At the time of the sale we knew the new owners, Yellow Door Properties,LLC planned renovations but had little information about the work. But, now we are learning the buildings will be developed together into mixed use development called West End Lofts.

Some construction has already begun on the West End Lofts project, which promises to being historic high end loft residences to the upper floor of the buildings, and new commercial space, suitable for retail or restaurants on the ground floor. About 10,000 square feet of commercial space will be offered, and at the time of the building's sale it was said Spokane Boxing Gym would lease some of the space for a new gym there.

The lofts at West End Lofts will be fully customizable spaces, 8 in all, and all about 3,000 square feet each. The spaces will be shells allowing the person purchasing the loft to put whatever they want where ever they want. The lofts will be hip, historic spaces with the spaces stripped down to the bare brick walls, many still with original historic advertisements on them.

The West End Lofts project keeps the history of these under-utilized buildings alive, with new life while not destroying the building. Here is a look at what West End Lofts buildings will look like once completed...

Residential and commercial space is now available with the spaces listed with Prime Real Estate Group. For more information on West End Lofts, visit the project website at-

www.westendloftsspokane.com

New apartment building planned for East Sprague corridor

Revitalization is clearly starting to kick in for the East Sprague corridor, which has plagued with drugs and prostitution issues for many years. The new Bennidito's Pizza & Brewery is now open for business there, and the new modern Sprague Union Terrace building is open for both apartment and commercial uses.

But, now yet another apartment building / complex is starting the planning process after meeting with the City of Spokane recently for a pre-development conference . Because of this, it's too early to tell when this new building will be built or even if it will be. However, the building owner is Community Frameworks, who has a good record of building positive housing developments. In fact, Community Frameworks is also building another new project, north of Downtown Spokane, called 315 West.

No name has been set for the new project on Sprague, which will rise on the current site of Car Connection used car lot, corner of Sprague Ave. & Madelia St. The plan calls for 36 apartments to be built in a few buildings, all within the first block of Madelia south of Sprague. The corner of Sprague & Madelia itself, where the car lot office is today will become the highlight of the development with a new large three story apartment building.

The lots directly south of the main apartment building will become two story townhomes facing Madelia and 1st Ave. with exception of one small townhome building being accessed via the alleyway there. The plan also calls for a parking lot and play area to be by the townhome portion of the project. More parking will also be the main building as well.

The apartment's plans currently call for a total of 36 apartments and no commercial / office space. Apartments are to be of varying sizes and floor plans, with 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments all included in the plans.

We will continue to keep and eye out for a name, an official project rendering and construction time line. Stay tuned....

Maverik opening today in Hayden

The fifth location of the Utah based Maverik gas station chain officially opens for business today, Dec. 9th. This new location is next to Rustlers Roost Restaurant on the Northwest side of the US 95 / Hayden Ave. intersection in the City of Hayden,ID.

The new Maverik is like most other Maverik locations with a modern convenience store ( 4,250 square feet ) and multiple fuel pumps. Maverik gas stations have also become known for their BonFire brand of hot, already prepared foods, which will also be offered at the new Hayden location.

The Hayden Maverik will open for business at 4 pm today, with a grand opening celebration to follow from 4-8pm . Included in the grand opening will be-

-Free samples of BonFire food items, snacks and drinks

-"Free Swag"

-Giveaways

- Staff members available to sign people up for the Maverik branded credit card, saving 6 cents off fuel per gallon.

This s currently the only Maverik gas station location planned in our area. Although locations in Coeur d' Alene, Spokane Valley, North Spokane and Cheney are still open and going strong. All Maverik locations are open 24 hours and only started opening in our area a few years ago.

For more information on Maverik , visit their web site at-

www.maverik.com

Fieldhouse Pizza & Tap House, not Selkirk, coming to Liberty Lake

Note: In a previous post on this site I mentioned that the former Blockbuster Video storefront in Liberty Lake is being remodeled for Selkirk Pizza. Much of the info was correct, but it will actually by a sister restaurant of Selkirk Pizza, Fieldhouse Pizza & Tap House that will go in to the Liberty Lake spot.

The space is about 5,000 square feet and is the north end cap space on the Liberty Lake Plaza shopping center, 1200 blk. of N. Liberty Lake Road . Remodeling work has been underway for a few weeks now, with an estimated opening date now being sometime in Jan. 2016 . The new Fieldhouse Pizza & Tap House will employ about 20 -25 people. And, the original Fieldhouse location , at 4423 W. Wellesley Ave in Spokane will still remaining open for business, even after the Liberty Lake location opens.

The Liberty Lake Fieldhouse Pizza & Tap House will be similar to the location in Spokane. The location will have a bar with full service and a restaurant area with limited service to be family / team friendly. A small game room and a banquet room able to approximately 25 will also be offered. The bar area will be a full bar, in addition to offering various rotating regional craft beers on tap and a nice sized wine selection.

Fieldhouse Pizza has a good sized menu of specialty pizzas, all of which are delicious , but it's not all the restaurant serves. The location on Wellesley ( and we assume the new one too ) serve a menu of pastas, salads, appetizers and great sandwiches.

In addition to opening a second location of Fieldhouse Pizza, the owners also recently acquired to SS Beryl , a bit of landmark seafood restaurant in North Spokane. The new owners have made some minor changes to that establishment, like doing updates to the kitchen, restrooms and menu. The updates they hope will make for a much nicer dining experience. More updates are still coming to the SS Beryl , but it will remain open at it's current location , 6404 N. Wall St.

For more information on Fieldhouse Pizza, find them on Facebook at-

www.facebook.com/fieldhousepizza

Well Life Pharmacy relocates two stores to new bigger locations

The locally owned and operated small chain of pharmacy's known as Well Life Pharmacy is on the move. Well Life Pharmacy recently moved out of two of their small pharmacy locations inside Trading Co. Grocery Stores for new locations that are still in the same general area of the original location.

The two locations that have relocated are their pharmacy's in Post Falls and the Latah area of Spokane. Both are now in locations that are larger then the original and separate from the Trading Co. . Here is where to find the new Well Life Pharmacy locations-

Post Falls- 565 N. Vest St , former Tree of Life Organic Deli's building

Spokane / Latah - 5608 S. Regal Ave. Suite 102 , next to Prairie Dog Pet Mercantile in the Regal Square Shopping Plaza

Both locations still offer a full service pharmacy offering both brand name and generic prescriptions. But, also over the counter products, nutraceuticals , supplements and a new natural skin care line.

These two stores are the only locations to relocate, but the small chain also operates locations in Liberty Lake and Bonners Ferry,ID . In fact, the location in Bonners Ferry also has a small café with espresso and snacks located inside.

For more information on Well Life Pharmacy, visit their website at-

www.welllifepharmacy.com

Scarlett's Golf Experence opens a virtual golf shop in Spokane Valley Mall

If you love to golf, you'll likely love this new business now open on the second floor of Spokane Valley Mall. Scarlett's Golf Experience is that business, and they offer a virtual golf experience that allows customers to play almost 100 different courses via multiple high def screens. The experience is ideal for golfers wanting to try the holes of a iconic golf course, or just wanting to play a round of golf while the weather outside is less then ideal.

Scarlett's Golf Experience is located in the mall permanently in the former Deb Shop clothing store space. The space is on the second floor of the mall, next to Payless Shoe Source. This is actually Scarlett's second location as the business started a few months ago in a smaller space, next to Sports Authority in Coeur d' Alene's Silver Lake Mall. That location also remains open for business.

Leagues are also available, as are golf lessons from one of their PGA professional teachers. The business is open seven days a week and groups are welcome. For more information on Scarlett's Golf Experience, visit their website at-

www.scarlettgolf.com

Green Acres Vendor Mall opens in Spokane Valley, has big plans

You may know this businesses address ( 17905 E. Appleway, Spokane Valley ) as the home of Shele's Bargain Barn, a thrift store that was in the news not long ago. The store site, which is also the owners home, was at risk of foreclosure ( due to health issues ) and was saved via selling off the remaining merchandise and some other "donations".

While it was saved, the business half of the site has gone to a new owner, who has now reopened it as a unique, locally owned and operated small business. The new business is a vendor mall consisting of over 30 different vendors, taking up 4,400 square feet of space. The store, which is now called Green Acres Vendor Mall has a bit of everything, in a clean and pleasant set up. Crafts, candles, jewelry, gifts and so much more can be found in every corner of the store.

The building is also home to another new small business, a locally owned and operated used bike shop, called Dirty Peddlers Bicycle Co-Op Shop takes up a section of the site and offers a large selection of used bikes for all ages and uses. A great alterative to purchasing an expensive bicycle from one of the big box stores.

But, while the new Green Acres Vendor Mall is a cool new business itself, the owners have big plans for the future. A coffee shop and bistro ( called Wake & Bake Coffee and 2 Phat Chix Sammies) are planned to open sometime next year and the space " out back " of the store will become a new flea market called River City Flea. A community garden space and food truck court are also among the incredibly exciting plans for the site, which is convenient to both Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake.

New vendors are still moving in and new merchandise is always being added, making this new store worth a visit. For more information on Green Acres Vendor Mall, find them on Facebook at-

https://www.facebook.com/ShelesBARGAINBARN