Hamer’s Exits Coeur D’Alene Resort Plaza, Plans Store In Valley Mall

A major business is leaving the Coeur d’Alene Resort Plaza, but the space won’t be empty long.

Not wanting to commit to a 5-year lease, Hamer’s Sport clothing store left the plaza Tuesday to opt for space in the under-construction Spokane Valley Mall. The 40-year-old Spokane-based business hopes to be in its new digs by August. The company has four other Spokane stores.

“We enjoyed doing business in Coeur d’Alene, but we weren’t prepared to sign a 5-year lease,” said Nan Lindsay, Hamer’s office manager. “The plaza was very accommodating and offered us other spaces, but they were too small.”

The new leasee for the plaza space closest to the exits toward the Coeur d’Alene Resort is Finan McDonald Clothing Co., a natural fiber clothing and footwear store expanding from its 9-year-old Sandpoint location.

The Sandpoint store has long attracted customers from Kootenai County.

Owners Ben and Rhonda Tate are Cincinnati and Sandpoint natives respectively. The new store should open in mid-April with five employees.

Scotty’s Sports Grill is the new name for the restaurant that has operated as Cousin’s Steakhouse since it opened on Northwest Boulevard in Coeur d’Alene 18 months ago.

Offering an active sports theme for local and regional teams and fans, Scotty’s plans to open the third week of April with a new interior. The 5,000-square-foot facility will seat 120 people and employ up to 20.

Owner Scott McIntosh said Scotty’s will feature 16 TV sets, with three viewable from any seat in the house, a big-screen TV, and games including darts, pool and video.

“We want do something on this scale that is needed in Coeur d’Alene,” McIntosh said, “so we’re going to bring it in in style.”

The menu will continue the steakhouse tradition with a variety of steaks and baby-back ribs. Additions include sandwiches, burgers, smoked prime rib and weekend breakfasts.

An Orange County, Calif., native, McIntosh came to North Idaho in 1994 from Park City, Utah.

Baby-back ribs also will be the mainstay of Rib Ranch, which will open for dinner Friday at the northwest corner of Highways 95 and 54 in Athol. The facility had been Bettie’s Country Inn.

New owners Dave and Sandi Jones opened the lounge portion of the business two weeks ago and will hold a grand opening of the restaurant in a few weeks.

“We’ll have the best baby-back ribs around,” claimed Sandi. Other menu items will include steaks, pastas and chicken-fried steak. Seating about 60 customers, the restaurant will be open daily for lunch and dinner.

Originally from Oklahoma and Minnesota respectively, Dave and Sandi formerly owned the Gateway Resort in Harrison, the Sandpoint Cruise Boat and the parasailing business in Coeur d’Alene.

Doubling in space, Papa Murphy’s Pizza opened last week at its new Coeur d’Alene location at 1800 Government Way.

Offering take-and-bake pizza, calzones and lasagne, Papa Murphy’s is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and until 9 p.m. weekends. A drive-up window for call-in orders will open in April.

Owners George and Nelda House came to North Idaho from Texas in 1967. He taught at Coeur d’Alene High School for many years, and she runs the kindergarten at Noah’s Ark Preschool. Their son, Tim, manages the 14 employees.

The Houses will offer a portion of the new facility for lease as well as the 900-square-foot area Papa Murphy’s left on East Sherman Avenue. The Sherman location can also include space vacated by Casa Maria’s restaurant, which apparently has abandoned its plans to move to the old McDonald’s Express space in downtown Coeur d’Alene.

Briefly:

Job Service is interviewing 1,200 candidates for the 200-plus jobs to be offered by Fred Meyer when it opens in late April in Coeur d’Alene. Some 1,520 people applied for positions.

Correction: Although Design Events (profiled here recently) originally installed holiday decorations at The Coeur d’Alene Resort, since 1994 Brian Stevens of Greenworks Landscape Co. said his company has been in charge of the decorating.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Nils Rosdahl The Spokesman-Review