Thomas Hammer moving downtown

Thomas Hammer Coffee Co. is planning to move its corporate headquarters — including a coffee roasting operation and bakery — to the east side of downtown Spokane.

Both operations need more space, so Hammer will consolidate them at 210 W. Pacific Ave., a 20,000-square-foot building he bought in April. Thomas Hammer also said he’s eager to help rejuvenate part of downtown.

He’s moving to a neighborhood that contains an eclectic mix of warehouses and recently renovated buildings, offices, some retail shops, a climbing gym, a homeless shelter, a night club and other businesses.

“We were really hip on trying to get back into the downtown; that’s where I got my start,” Hammer said. “We’re doing whatever we can to help the downtown keep its energy going.”

Hammer said he’ll spend about $200,000 on remodeling and hired Rencorp to handle the renovation. Last year, Rencorp restored a building a block to the east for its own offices.

Hammer’s coffee business includes a wholesale division and 11 retail stores in Spokane and Boise. It has been located in the Fancher Bridge Business Park in Spokane Valley for 10 years. His Mad Batter Bakery, which started in 2002 and now supplies about 45 accounts in Spokane and North Idaho, is located at Broadway and Interstate 90.

The new building offers four times the space his two businesses now occupy, Hammer said. He won’t have a retail store on Pacific, but wants to open a conference room for public use and likely will have coffee available for neighbors. He’d also like to set up tours “so people can see what we’re doing.”

Hammer hopes to move in by September. Title records show he bought the building from Kenneth and Marie Bailey for $350,000.

Though Hammer’s new neighbors welcome his business, some warned of problems with street people.

“If you got off at 3:30 and had to walk to your car, it wasn’t real pleasant,” said Joyce Bailey Vannoy, president of Michlitch Co., a seasoning company that occupied Hammer’s building from 1987 to 2003. Vannoy said the threat her customers felt from some people on the street contributed to her decision to move.

Bob Hamacher, a property owner and partner in BHW1 at 19 W. Pacific, said he hasn’t been able to lease the second floor of his building due to the problem. He feels that the House of Charity, the homeless shelter at 32 W. Pacific, has lost control of its population, though he acknowledges the need for the services it provides.

“It’s an issue, I don’t know how it will get solved,” Hamacher said. “They (The House of Charity) don’t have the manpower to come here and keep track anymore.”

The problems in the neighborhood are not specific to the House of Charity, said James Landry, the shelter’s operations director. The shelter’s staff is trying to address the problem, he said, by walking through the neighborhood, checking on homeless people, and involving them in projects at the shelter that help “give them a feeling of community.” He encourages neighbors to call when they’re having problems.

Landry said having more businesses like Hammer’s moving into the neighborhood will help turn the neighborhood around. “The more neighbors we have that are committed to providing a community-wide solution,” the better, he said.

For his part, Hammer doesn’t seem terribly concerned. He said he started his career selling coffee on the street for Nordstrom when he was in high school. He said he found that people who are treated with respect give respect back, whoever they are.

“I don’t think that should be a reason people choose a project or not choose a project, so to us it doesn’t matter,” Hammer said. “We can go renovate a building and you never know what that does for the area.”