Flour Mill ‘condos’ available

Businesses have a chance to own a piece of the historic Flour Mill along the Spokane River following recent renovations.

Building owners spent close to $2 million over the last couple years to fashion office condos, a newer commercial real estate option in Spokane, and to update the electrical and heating systems, said Ron Horton, property manager for Kiemle & Hagood Co. Available condos include a cavernous, rock- and brick-lined office space that once housed the 112-year-old building’s diesel generator.

The 5,215-square-foot chamber, once home to a pizza joint, sells for $599,000 and comes with a large safe too bulky to move. It was used as storage for years, said associate broker Casey Brazil. Crews sandblasted some walls to remove stains and painted aging woodwork, he said.

“We did a lot of updating down here,” Brazil said.

Owner GVL Investors, a Bay Area concern, saw an opportunity to make improvements at The Flour Mill, 621 W. Mallon Ave..

Five other open condos range from 382 square feet for $57,500 to 3,833 square feet for $459,000. A construction firm, personnel service and certified public accounting agency already hold spaces on upper floors.

The river-level condo is best suited for offices because it lacks the access for retail and shouldn’t compete with longtime building tenant Clinkerdagger restaurant, Brazil said.

“It’s going to be a great space for someone,” Brazil said. “It just has to be the right fit.”

New digs for bookstore, press

The Eastern Washington University Bookstore may open as early as next week in the University District, its director said.

The roughly 2,500-square-foot shop in the historic Schade Towers, 528 E. Spokane Blvd., will carry about five times more clothing than the current Spokane store, one of the last organizations to move from EWU’s old building downtown, said Bob Anderson, director of the university’s bookstores and student union building. He hopes the shop is completed by the start of winter quarter in January.

Many students had migrated to Riverpoint Campus, and parking is better at the new location, he said.

“It’s just much more convenient for the students,” he said. “This is just a much nicer facility.”

The new store will carry textbooks, general books, more school supplies and computer-related products, he said.

While the Schade Towers shares a parking lot with Washington State University’s The Bookie, Anderson said he doesn’t see them competing.

The Eastern Washington University Press also is moving. Its warehouse will occupy the Schade’s cellar, and its offices are in the adjacent Riverfront Office Park, said Ivar Nelson, press director.

While distribution formerly was handled by the University of Washington Press in Seattle, the new digs will bring distribution in-house, Nelson said. The press publishes about 15 titles a year, he said.

North Spokane Skippers reopens

Months after area Skippers Seafood’n Chowder House restaurants shuttered, a Coeur d’Alene couple has brought one in North Spokane back online.

Franchisees Pat and Marion Fuller reopened the Skippers, 3320 N. Monroe St., on Saturday. It will have “basically the same Skippers menu,” including the chowder, Marion Fuller said.

“Just about every day people were coming in there” as the restaurant was spruced up, she said. “It was a little bit surprising.”

Skippers eateries in Eastern Washington and North Idaho closed in late June after the former Seattle-based corporation that owned them went bankrupt. Now, Newcastle, Wash.-based Starway Restaurants LLC holds the franchise rights, said part-owner Scott Way.

It’s possible another location could open in Spokane and one in Coeur d’Alene, Way said.

Way said the new chain will incorporate more grilled items, and franchisees are more likely to focus on quality and service.

“Some of that might have been lacking in the past,” Marion Fuller said.

The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. all week and employs about 9, she said.

The Fullers formerly owned the Rodeway Inn in downtown Spokane, but sold it this summer for about $1 million, Spokane County property records show.

Condo project progressing

A project to turn the Comet Press building at Washington Street and First Avenue into condos and retail space has taken a few months longer than expected, but developers expect it to be occupied in January.

Five of the building’s seven condos, which cost an average of about $350,000, already have been reserved, said designer and developer Heather Hanley. Original plans called for them to be unfinished, but Hanley, owner of the Tin Roof furniture store, said that proved too difficult. Instead, she gave would-be tenants design choices.

“Each one is individual,” Hanley said. “They’re not Sheetrock boxes.”

Condos range from a 670-square-foot studio to 2,700-square-feet for Hanley that includes a narrow, spiral staircase that opens onto the rooftop.

“It’s really livable space,” she said. “Just because you live downtown doesn’t mean you don’t have stuff.”

Electricians worked on the three-story building Thursday. Sheetrock will go up soon, but an elevator and carport haven’t taken shape.

Behind a new façade, the street-level space will hold Concept Home, a Tin Roof spinoff featuring a soft-contemporary look, she said.

Hanley and three partners, including her father, Jim, bought the building in July 2006 for $750,000 as Lombard Living LLC.

“It’s really turned out to be a classy building, but it’s been expensive to do it,” said Jim Hanley, general contractor.

The building is insured for about $2.8 million, Heather Hanley said.

The renovation kept brick exterior walls, vintage stairs and large skylights, but required tearing out walls that once separated the building into a hotel.

“When we get through, it should look like it did 100 years ago, except better, and certainly be more energy efficient, that’s for sure,” said Jim Hanley.