Hecla To Auction Undeveloped Commercial Sites Near Coeur D’Alene

A multimillion-dollar portfolio of undeveloped commercial sites at Silver Lake Center north of Coeur d’Alene has been placed on the auction block by Hecla Mining Co.

A total of 16 retail, hotel, office and restaurant sites - undeveloped parts of the 145-acre master-planned project that encompasses Silver Lake Mall and Silver Lake Plaza - are up for sale.

The properties are being offered through a sealed-bid auction conducted by Realty Marketing/Northwest of Seattle, Portland, and Walnut Creek, Calif., in affiliation with The Maher Co., a Spokane and Coeur d’Alene broker.

Timothy P. Reinertsen, senior vice president of Realty Marketing/Northwest, and Thomas F. Maher report that all 16 sites are improved and ready for construction.

The sites are located along U.S. Highway 95 in an area of growing retail and commercial activity neighboring the regional mall.

“We are also going to evaluate bids for joint venture of the hotel and restaurant sites at Silver Lake Office Park” bordering Hecla headquarters, said Michael White, Hecla vice president and general counsel.

Development of Silver Lake Center was begun in 1984 by Hecla in conjunction with construction of a new headquarters. The mall was constructed in 1988 by California developers. The adjoining Silver Lake Plaza followed in 1990.

The properties are being offered with published reserve prices that collectively total about $7.5 million.

Complete information may be obtained by calling the auctioneer at (800) 845-3524.

Bids are due Aug. 9.

Cheney Weeder wins innovation award

One of Spokane’s oldest surviving manufacturing firms is the recipient of a top national award for innovation.

Cheney Weeder Mfg. Inc. has been singled out by the federal Small Business Innovation Research Program to receive the Tibbetts Award for an “extraordinary contribution” to industrial research and development.

Cheney Weeder’s contribution caters to disabled boaters, a clientele far afield from Cheney Weeder’s original customer base. The Spokane firm with the funny sounding name started out in Cheney in 1910 making a weeding attachment for farm use.

For more than half a century, Cheney Weeder manufactured predominantly agricultural equipment. Then, during a downturn in farm business in the 1970s, the firm gradually began to diversify its product line. Today, the factory produces combine reels, snowmobile trailers, enclosed trailers, machine parts and pontoon boats.

A year and a half ago, the U.S. Small Business Administration awarded Cheney Weeder a $35,000 grant to pursue development of a fully accessible pontoon boat for persons with disabilities.

“We used the grant to develop a product that would satisfy the boating needs of any family, including families that have just one son or daughter or parent who is disabled,” says Gregory S. Paulus, company president. “We tried to accommodate the needs of the able and the disabled.”

Paulus was nominated for national honors by the Coalition of Responsible Disabled in Spokane, which provided guidance in the design and in the sea trials.

Design Millwork gets new owner, tack

Visitors to Spokane’s 1996 home show, which wrapped up a 10-day run Sunday on Five Mile Prairie, may very well remember the showcase’s “Prairie Sunset” entry for its woodwork.

“We essentially craft jewelry for the home,” says Dell Clark, creator of the home’s fireplace surround, interior columns, and wonderfully warm woodwork throughout. “From ceiling to floor, and walls to doors, everything we manufacture adds personality to a house.”

The we of which he speaks is Design Millwork Inc. of Spokane. He is the new owner of the 10-year-old Spokane millwork operation which has embarked on a new way of doing business and is nearing completion of a new showroom to exhibit the firm’s redirected capabilities.

Clark, a Spokane native who moved to California, then moved back, bought Design Millwork in January. The plant operated mostly as a job shop when he bought it. Now it offers complete interiors and specialty products to architects, contractors and consumers.

The goal is “to make finely crafted items that haven’t been available at affordable prices since the 17th century” - coffer beam ceilings, wall-insert cabinets, hardwood mantles and the like.

“We’re going to bring fine quality millwork into the 21st century,” says Clark. “And we are inviting architects, contractors and builders to bring their customers into our showroom and actually show them what they can have, rather than play ‘just imagine’ on a set of blueprints.”

Design Millwork is located in Building 14 of the Spokane Industrial Park. Grand opening of the new showroom is targeted for early August.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes a notes column each Wednesday. If you have business items of regional interest for future columns, call 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review