Nightclub promises more east end buzz
The chef who brought Isabella’s Restaurant and Gin Joint to the east end of downtown Spokane will try his hand at a nightclub across Main Avenue.
Isabella’s owner William Webster said Zola, a club at 22 W. Main Ave., will offer a venue for live music and sushi, tapas and some organic food. Bedecked with found items, including carnival-ride buckets that line a mezzanine seating area and halved license plates that cover some walls, it should open by February, he said.
“It’s cool over there,” Webster said. “It’s definitely unique.”
“It’s kind of an eclectic pub, bistro, café, music venue,” said Dan Spalding, who owns the Longbotham Building that houses Zola.
Located near a bakery and a yoga studio and across from the recently reopened Magic Lantern art house theater, Zola is another addition to the once-quiet east end.
“There’s tons of stuff going on over here,” Webster said.
In the works for more than a year, the project had a few false starts, said Spalding, who’s designing and building the 3,200-square-foot club. A permitting problem delayed the opening, originally scheduled to happen by Dec. 1, he said.
Worn, green doors from the recently remodeled Saranac Building across the street line the bottom of the concrete-topped bar, and light bulbs on twisted wires hang down overhead.
“Somebody called these Dr. Seuss lights,” Spalding said.
On the club’s east wall, weathered doors salvaged from a local building lead into private dining areas. Overhead, teal wood Tilt-A-Whirl seats attached to antique moving tables from Spokane trolley cars form a seating area. A separate mezzanine room will offer card games.
A local artist fashioned tables from wood from a downtown building, Spalding said.
While Webster said he’s always wanted to open a club, he wanted to do something trendy and new. It should appeal to people 35 and older who have a dressier attitude, he said.
“There’s a lot of people dying for that,” he said.
Seventh building planned at Chimney Rock
A Bellevue-based company intends to erect a seventh building at the Chimney Rock Industrial Park in east Spokane.
Owner Lindley Property LLC authorized construction because the park, which houses tenants such as OfficeMax and Sherwin-Williams, has been nearly full for the past four years, said Todd X. Rothrock, vice president of The Rothrock Co., which manages the park.
“We were hoping to get out of the ground and have it ready in the spring,” he said. But because the planned building, at 3420 E. Desmet Ave., doesn’t have a tenant, Lindley Property didn’t want to pay for winter construction.
Some initial grading is completed, and work should continue in the spring, he said. The project is expected to cost about $1.3 million. Spokane-based Garco Construction Inc. is the general contractor.
Assisted living center growing
South Hill assisted living center Parkway Village plans a 30-room, two-story addition that could hold a “memory care” unit.
Estimated to cost $1.7 million, it will be built on the northeast corner of the 54-room center, said Terry Dowler, maintenance director.
Administrator Tonya Williams asked owner Sunwest Management Inc., of Salem, to make it a locked facility for people suffering from dementia who need special care, she said.
Expansion by other area assisted living businesses prompted the add-on, Dowler said.
“They don’t want to be the little kid on the block,” he said. “They want to be able to compete.”
The current center is nearly full, Williams said. Construction likely will begin this spring, Dowler said.