Developer purchases Brass Rail building
Empty downtown bar’s second floor will house new owner’s company
Jerry Dicker, a prominent developer credited with helping breathe new life into downtown Spokane’s entertainment scene, is moving his company’s headquarters into the building formerly occupied by Dempsey’s Brass Rail bar.
The two-story building at 909 W. First Ave. has been vacant since Dempsey’s bar went out of business in 2011. Now the second floor is being remodeled into a larger office space for Dicker’s company, GVD Commercial Properties. The company will move from its current offices in a residential neighborhood at 810 E. 28th Ave.
Dicker declined to say what might occupy the building’s first floor, but he gave this hint: “We’re in the entertainment district, so it should be something that’s consistent with entertainment and the arts.”
Something should open there by September or October, he said.
Dicker paid $600,000 earlier this year for the 3,900-square-foot building, which the Spokane County Assessor’s Office had valued at just under $500,000. It’s situated near two of his other properties, the Hotel Ruby, at 901 W. First Ave., and the Bing Crosby Theater, one block to the north at 901 W. Sprague Ave.
Mauer Construction, a regular development partner of GVD Commercial Properties, is handling the second-floor renovation.
Construction workers have been scraping off the building’s old facade for several days.