The Dirt: Third Avenue McDonald’s set for renovation

The McDonald’s on Third Avenue in downtown Spokane is planning a major renovation, according to permits issued by the city.

The fast-food restaurant will remodel its parking lot, build a new exterior facade, renovate its dining area, add new drive-thru menu boards and upgrade its restrooms. The work is estimated at $350,000.

The 39-year-old building is 3,700 square feet in size and, along with the half-acre property it sits on at Third and Howard Street, is assessed at $935,000, according to county property information.

The Third Avenue location was the third McDonald’s in Spokane and the 17th in Washington state. The original building was constructed in 1970 for $105,000 and replaced with the current structure in 1980.

The first McDonald’s in Spokane opened in October 1963 at 6320 N. Monroe St., and a McDonald’s stands there today. The original framework for the 1963 hamburger stand wasn’t torn down until a 2017 remodel.

The area’s second location, at 10615 E. Sprague Ave., is now the Three Sisters Vietnamese restaurant.

All three of these McDonald’s were built and owned by franchisee Peter Clausen.

A native of Denmark, Clausen said he chose to move to Spokane in 1950 when he visited the city as an agricultural exchange student on an 18-month tour of the country. During that trip, he met a woman from Illinois named Rita; they were later married and settled in her home state, where they started a family. More than a decade later, hearing that Spokane was available for a McDonald’s franchise, Clausen needed “little persuasion,” he said in a 1964 article in the Spokane Daily Chronicle, and moved with his wife and three children.

When Clausen opened the first McDonald’s on Monroe, the chain had 522 stores in 42 states and was known as home to the 15-cent hamburger and limited 10-item menu. Seven years later, when Clausen opened the Third Avenue location, there were 1,700 stores and Clausen said he expected to serve 50,000 hamburgers a month there.

Clausen sold his businesses in 1980 to brothers Mark, Cory and Rock Ray. The family of Mark Ray, who started at the original Spokane location in 1964 as a “shakeman” while attending Gonzaga University, is still in the McDonald’s business with 28 local restaurants. – N.D.

Hospital pharmacies to be upgraded

Two local hospital pharmacies are getting upgraded to comply with standards regarding the sterility and handling of drugs, according to permits issued by the city.

The work totals more than $1.5 million.

The pharmacies at Holy Family Hospital and Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center are being remodeled and upgraded to meet United States Pharmacopeia standards regarding the sterile preparation of compounds and the handling of hazardous drugs.

The work at Holy Family is estimated to cost $847,500. Sacred Heart’s upgrades will run $657,500.

The USP is a nonprofit organization that publishes an annual compendium of drug information that establishes standards for, among other things, medicines and food ingredients. Its standards are used by regulatory agencies and manufacturers and ensure quality, consistency, purity and strength of products.

Chapter 797 of the compendium, which deals with sterile preparations of compounds, describes the “responsibilities of compounding personnel, training, facilities, environmental monitoring and storage and testing of finished preparations,” according to USP’s website. The chapter was recently updated.

Chapter 800 deals with the safe handling of hazardous drugs. It also was recently updated in conjunction with the chapter dealing with sterile preparation.

According to the USP, the chapters were updated concurrently to “align these standards, providing a unified approach to quality compounding.” The updates will become official on Dec. 1, leading to the local pharmacy upgrades.

The work on both pharmacies is being done by Bouten Construction, of Spokane. – N.D.

Wake Up Call to expand into Idaho

Spokane-based Wake Up Call is expanding into the Idaho market with a new coffee shop in Coeur d’Alene.

Wake Up Call is converting a former Taco Time at 2517 N. Fourth St. for its newest location. The coffee chain purchased the building for more than $524,000, according to Spokane-based SVN Cornerstone, which represented Wake Up Call in the sale.

“We are very excited to bring Wake Up Call coffee to Coeur d’Alene. It’s something that we think true coffee fans would welcome and appreciate,” Tony Mukhamediyev of SVN Cornerstone said in a statement.

Wake Up Call opened its first coffee shop more than 15 years ago on Dishman-Mica Road in Spokane Valley. The Coeur d’Alene coffee shop will be Wake Up Call’s 10th location. – A.E.