The Dirt

Work begins on old building

Renovation is underway for the Washington Cracker Co. building, at 304 W. Pacific Ave., to convert the 38,000-square-foot interior into mixed-use commercial spaces for lease, including for a winery.

Built in 1891 and added to in 1905, the three-story structure is on the Spokane Register of Historic Places as a site used for decades to make assorted breads, saltine crackers, biscuits and cereals. The logo, “Home of SnowFlake Saltines,” and name, National Biscuit Company, are visible on the north façade.

Darby McKee, with investor group Cracker Box LLC developing the property, said the $900,000 project began this month. Overbluff Cellars, for which McKee is a co-owner, will fill part of the main floor. Other first-floor areas will have a restaurant, art gallery and Anvil Coffee. Tenants hope to open by late summer.

Offices will occupy second-floor and likely third-floor spaces. Contractor SDS Construction Management also will install a new elevator, add stairs, build common areas, and upgrade utilities.

Portland entrepreneur Herman Wittenberg first developed the site for his rapidly growing biscuit and candy-making business. Early parent Pacific Coast Biscuit Co. was purchased in 1930 by the National Biscuit Co. (Nabisco), which operated in the building until 1965, when Morrison Moving & Storage Co. moved in and used it until 2009.

Medical building work begins

Young Construction Group has started groundwork for a two-story medical structure in Post Falls as the first of three similar buildings for the Syringa Medical Campus, at the northeast corner of Mullan Avenue and Syringa Street.

The first 18,000-square-foot structure will include various-sized tenant spaces. NISHB LLC, property owner, is handling the leasing for the building expected to be completed later this year.

Each building in the Syringa complex will hold from two to eight tenants, with between 1,000 square feet and up to 7,000 square feet.