Jim Sheehan, owner of the Community Building and former Saranac Hotel, both on Main Avenue at the east end of downtown, has bought a nearby building that houses a Goodyear Tire Center store, and is looking at perhaps opening a produce market there some time from now.


Sheehan bought the 20,000-square-foot Goodyear building, at 44 W. Main, just west of Division Street, late last month, says Dave Sanders, community coordinator of the Community Building. Sheehan will continue to lease out that building to Goodyear for the next four years, Sanders says.


Sheehan is considering different development options for the structure, and after Goodyears lease expires, will look at remodeling it, possibly for a community garden or a produce market, Sanders says. Sheehan is continuing to look for a parking lot-sized space, preferably in that area of downtown, to open a community garden, Sanders says.


That community garden would include vegetable and flower plots, and possibly a playground, where members of the community could work with each other to take care of the property, Sanders says. Sheehan intends for the garden to be a way to educate the community about the value of locally-grown food, he says.


The true value is in the education, not in the food itself, he says. It would be an effort to raise awareness and get residents out in the garden engaging in their community.


Sheehan currently is renovating the four-story, more than 100-year-old former Saranac Hotel building, at 25 W. Main, and expects to complete work there by next January, Sanders says. He says the owner of an art-house theater, called the Magic Lantern, which operated in Spokane for a couple of decades before it closed in the late 1990s, expects to open the theater in the renovated Saranac. William Webster, the owner of the Herbal Essence Caf here, plans to open a new restaurant, called Isabellas, in an adjoining building, at 21 W. Main, that Sheehan also owns.


Sheehan refurbished the Community Building, at 35 W. Main, just west of the Saranac, about five years ago. Several Community Building tenants plan to move to the Saranac after renovations there are completed, Sanders says.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.