New Riverside bar planned

A new bar could open in the former 24 Hour Fitness building on West Riverside Avenue this fall, said Mark McLees, a leasing agent with NAI Black.

Owned by commercial appraiser Scot Auble and his father, David, the three-story building, 718 W. Riverside Ave., also will receive a facelift and upstairs expansion, McLees said. It’s sat vacant since 24 Hour Fitness became Oz Fitness and moved to the renovated J.C. Penny building.

NAI Black has listed the building for rent or for sale for $1.45 million (flyer here ).

The building went back on the market last winter after being under contract with Spokane developer Jeff Smith, who had planned a 17-story condo tower. The downturn in the residential market affected that project, McLees said. Overlook Spokane LLC purchased the Rodeway Inn, 901 W. 1st Ave., where Smith plans a tower consisting of a roughly 50-room hotel and 40 to 50 condo units, once the market improves.

The unspecified bar will take up the rear two-thirds of the main floor, with a couple small retail spaces fronting Riverside, McLees said. A new yoga studio that had considered locating there decided to look elsewhere. The structure once housed the Liberty Theater.

“The whole front of our building is going to be glass,” he said. “We’re just going to have a lot of light coming in.”