Dorian relocates main operation

Disrupted by a recent downtown Spokane fire, Dorian Studios has shifted most of its headquarters staff to the first floor of the downtown Sirti Technology Center.

Earlier this week, the family-owned photography company moved its studio and customer service center to a building at 1105 N. Lincoln.

“We’d consider that location (on Lincoln) a branch office,” said John Mark, Dorian’s operations manager.

The move to the Sirti technology building, near the Riverpoint campus, is interim pending reviews of the damaged downtown office by structural engineers and insurance agents. Any discussion about moving back to that building at 161 S. Post is premature, Mark said.

Regardless of what happens with its fire-damaged building, Dorian plans to renovate a former hotel banquet facility, 4212 W. Sunset Blvd., it purchased the day after the fire. The roughly 14,000-square-foot space, which Dorian bought for $744,000, will house processing equipment that is coming in from around the country and is slated for remodeling, Mark said.

“We were studying it actually before the fire as a possibility because our business was expanding, and we were sort of out of space,” he said. “You want to do it right, but you also have to do it quickly.”

Following the July 24 Joel Building fire, Mark and his staff moved into the board room at Sirti’s main building and used it as a makeshift office. In six days, Mark said, Dorian and Sirti were able to equip and furnish about 3,500 square feet in the Sirti Technology Center a few blocks away.

Mark said the assistance he has received has been extensive. Much of the company’s processing of images is now being done in rented space at R & R Custom Color Lab at 1401 N. Calispel.

“I don’t think you could have rebuilt as quickly or as well anywhere else,” Mark said of the cooperation he has had from area firms and agencies like Sirti.

The main company data was stored on servers inside the Joel Building, he said. Those servers were damaged by water and are being analyzed by specialists in Colorado, he said.

While those computers have hard-to-replace company data, Mark said other key information has been restored from the company’s assorted branch offices. Those accounts and key records were maintained on computers away from Spokane and have been restored, he said.