The Dirt: Developer looking to convert Jensen-Byrd Hardware building in downtown Spokane into apartments, retail

A developer is looking to convert the Jensen-Byrd Hardware building in downtown Spokane into apartments and retail space.

Dan Spalding has filed a pre-development application with the city to potentially redevelop 61,000 square feet of the warehouse and office building into 42 apartments and 17,000 feet into commercial retail space at 314 and 320 W. Riverside Ave.

Spalding is also looking to redesign a center portion of the building into a courtyard and turn a basement storage area into additional parking, according to the application.

The application indicated potential construction of an additional seven-story building at 310 W. Riverside Ave.

A pre-development application does not necessarily indicate the project will occur, but rather the applicant is seeking input from the city on whether development plans are feasible.

Jensen Real Estate Investors Inc. is the current property owner. However, they have listed the building for sale with Kiemle Hagood broker Tim Kestell.

The property listing does not indicate a sale price. 

Kestell said they are considering all offers and several buyers nationwide have expressed interest in the property.

“We are going to do a call for offers in the next couple of weeks and then we’ll get to a point when we are actually able to get through the offers and figure out who is going to be the actual buyer, Kestell said.

The Jensen-Byrd Hardware building shares a name with the Jensen-Byrd warehouse at 131 W. Main Ave. in the University District.

O.C. Jensen and Henry Brooke founded hardware store Jensen, Brooke & Co. in 1883. Brooke later sold his interest in the business to Charles King and the store operated as Jensen King & Co.

The business partners relocated the hardware company to Spokane following a devastating fire in Sprague in 1895.

They later bought out Wolverton-Byrd and became Jensen-King-Byrd Hardware, according to a Spokesman-Review article published in 2018.

The business partners built the two side-by-side buildings on the 300 block of West Riverside Avenue. Oliver Jensen’s sons, Scott and Alvin, bought out King and the company became Jensen-Byrd Co. in 1925.

For several decades, farmers, loggers, miners and tradesmen shopped at the Riverside Avenue storefront, while Jensen-Byrd’s wholesale business operated out of a warehouse on the north bank of the Spokane River.

Jensen-Byrd acquired Marshall-Wells Co. in 1958 and traded its three smaller warehouses for a larger structure on Main Avenue. The company shut down its Riverside Avenue storefront to focus on wholesale business.

Jensen-Byrd later built a distribution center on the West Plains. The company has been known as Emery Jensen Distribution since Ace Hardware Corp. acquired it in 2015.

Brick West building new production facility

Brick West Brewing Co. is planning to build a new production facility on the West Plains.

Spokane-based Trek Architecture filed a pre-development application with the city to build the 15,000-square-foot warehouse and production facility at 1624 S. Spotted Road.

Brick West co-owner Matt Goodwin said in an email the brewery is building the facility to expand its production and wholesale capabilities.

The building’s estimated cost is $2 million, according to the application.

A site plan indicates future phases of the project call for three additional 15,000-square-foot buildings.

Brick West Brewing Co. opened in 2020 at 1318 W. First Ave. on the West End of downtown Spokane. The brewery is a project of two sets of brothers, Matt and Ryan Goodwin, and Joel and Jordan Tampien.

Restaurant to be razed for apartments

The Fiesta Charra restaurant in West Spokane could be demolished to make way for an apartment development.

Spokane-based Trek Architecture submitted a pre-development application with the city to raze the restaurant and build the Rustle Apartments, which will consist of a three-story, 27,000-square-foot building with 32 units at 1520 S. Rustle St.

The property owner is Rustle Project LLC, whose principals are Jordan Tampien of 4 Degrees Real Estate and Mike Schneider.

Construction on the apartment building is slated to begin in the summer, according to a site plan for the project.

The project’s estimated cost is $3 million, according to the application.

This article was updated March 21 to reflect the correct owner of the Jensen Byrd Hardware building in downtown Spokane and that the structure is currently for sale.