Historic building occupied by Bridge Press Cellars listed for sale

The owners of Bridge Press Cellars have listed a historic building, occupied by the winery, for sale with plans to potentially relocate its tasting room.

Bridge Press Cellars owners, Brian and Melody Padrta and Mark and Valerie Wilkerson, recently listed the building, at 39 W. Pacific Ave., for sale for $1.65 million with NAI Black broker Mark McLees.

The decision to put the building up for sale was prompted in part by a desire to downsize and the pandemic, which reduced the frequency that Bridge Press Cellars could host live music events, said Brian Padrta, who is also an orthopedic surgeon.

“We could probably use a little bit less of the building,” he said. “We are looking at alternative spots (for the tasting room). At one time, we had live music three to five times a week and just can’t sustain that.”

Padrta also cited concerns with loitering and criminal activity in downtown Spokane as a reason for potentially relocating the winery’s tasting room. Bridge Press Cellars may consider leasing space in the building solely for wine sales and production, Padrta said.

The business will remain open in the building until it sells, he added.

The NAI Black listing indicates the 22,000-square-foot building has two wine bars, a stage for live music, a prep kitchen, and an assembly and distribution area.

The building’s second floor features an additional performance stage, a ballroom and bar. The basement level includes “mostly open and useable space” with a commercial freight elevator.

The sale also includes a 2,000-square-foot outdoor patio.

The Padrtas completed extensive renovations to the building in 2012.

More recent renovations include installing new lighting, resurfacing an existing bar and adding acoustic treatment in a space adjacent to the winery’s taproom that was used for live music events.

“We did a lot of renovating to make it sound great,” Padrta said.

Bridge Press Cellars, which became a licensed winery in 2009, specializes in small volume cabernet sauvignon and merlot.

The historic building on Pacific Avenue was constructed in 1910 and designed by prominent Spokane architect Albert Held, whose other projects include the Holley-Mason Hardware Building, the Jensen-Byrd warehouse and the Knickerbocker Apartments, among others.

The Pacific Avenue building once housed the Foresters of America, a fraternal organization. After the Foresters of America sold the building to the Sadir Khan Grotto in 1950, it was home to various businesses and used as a music venue, according to a Spokane Register of Historic Places nomination.

The building sat vacant for many years until the Padrtas purchased it in 2011 to open a winery and tasting room, according to the nomination.

The Pacific Avenue building is among a handful of downtown Spokane historic structures that have hit the market or changed hands in the past year.

In 2021, developers and hoteliers Walt and Karen Worthy sold The Davenport Hotels to Denver-based private capital firm KSL Partners for more than $200 million, Spokane County Recorder’s Office records show.

The Hieber family sold the historic Bennett Block building to a group of investors for $6 million in September. That same month, Sweeto Burrito franchisee Scott Isaak purchased the historic Peyton building for $11.4 million.