Alpine Haus opens at new location in north Spokane

An iconic South Hill ski shop recently opened its second location, this time catering to customers on Spokane’s North Side and to add a new outdoor twist: bicycles.

Spokane Alpine Haus, which has operated at 2925 S. Regal St. since 1976, recently opened its new location at 2215 W. Northwest Blvd. The location is east of North TJ Meenach Drive.

Owners Drew and Rachel Harding bought the former Chase Bank branch on Oct. 5, 2023, and had a soft opening on Oct. 5.

“That was not intentional,” Rachel Harding said of the exact year between events. “We had to do some remodeling. We didn’t want to rush into it.”

The Hardings purchased the Alpine Haus business on the South Hill in 2015, Rachel Harding said.

“We have grown and grown, and we got to the point where it made sense to expand,” she said.

The South Hill store is a full-service ski and snowboard shop that also sells apparel and accessories. They also have about 3,000 seasonal leases on equipment a year for clients that come from as far as Canada.

“For a little store, we pack a big punch,” she said.

Drew Harding said the No. 1 question their clients asked once they announced plans to purchase the new location on Northwest Boulevard was when they were going to expand into bicycles.

“A lot of our customers … ski with us and have to have their bike service done elsewhere,” he said. “It’s new for us this year. We will have sales, service, parts, accessories and everything.”

The Hardings teamed up with Kevin Dentler, former owner of This Bike Life in Spokane, to build the program. Alpine Haus will feature Scott, Kona, Norco and German-made Bull bikes at the Northwest Boulevard store.

“We will have some bikes on display at the South Hill location,” he said. “Next spring, we will have full sales and service at the south location.”

The general idea was to spread the business throughout the year, Harding said.

“The goal was to keep staff and retain them year -round and not have to hire so seasonally,” he said. “Winter is really busy for us and the summer sort of mellows out. Biking and the Northwest seems to go hand-in-hand with skiing.”

Rachel Harding said that customers continually had been asking about a potential new location on the North Side.

“We started keeping our eyes and ears open. We said if the right opportunity presents itself, we will do it,” she said.

Then last year, they found the former Chase branch. It was built in 1947 and Rachel Harding said she thinks it had five different banks occupy it since then.

“We are the first non-bank in that building,” she said.

As a result, the conversion took some work, Drew Harding said.

The couple had to take out a drive-thru window, which has been converted to storage. The drive -thru lane now ends at a wall of the new, redefined space.

“We bricked-in another window, had to tear out the teller window and all the stuff inside. We also put all new flooring, paint, new lighting and we had to frame in dressing rooms,” he said.

The Hardings were scheduled to have a grand opening on Saturday.

The current store hours, which will expand later in the fall, will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.