A newly formed investor group of women coincidentally named Odd Girls LLC has bought the 90-year-old Odd Fellows Hall at 1017 W. First with hopes of using it as a catalyst for redevelopment of that area of downtown Spokane.


We have some exciting plans for it. Wed like to see that whole area become an arts district, says Jill Smith, a spokeswoman for the womens investment group and a longtime artist and businesswoman here.


Smith declines to talk about some aspects of what the group is planning, but says, Were looking at putting an entrepreneurial womens center in there, and were getting ready to redo the front of the three-story building to restore it to its original appeal. Some interior remodeling also is planned, she says.


The Odd Fellows Hall was built by the Spokane chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization. It is a distinctive structure, with terra cotta exterior trim, solid marble stairs, brass handrails, large oak-framed windows, and hard-carved balconies adjoining a grand ballroom. However, it garners relatively little attention for its design because its located outside the city core in what for many years has been a declining area of downtown, and is overshadowed by taller, adjoining brick-faced buildings.


Its one of the gem buildings downtown that just a whole lot of people dont know about, Smith asserts.


The IOOF occupied space in the building for decades, but the structure also has housed a number of business- and entertainment-related activities, such as a Riley Candy Co. manufacturing plant, the Metronome Dance Hall, and Spokane Little Theater, records show.


Located south of the Fox Theatre complex, the building has about 7,000 square feet of space on its first and second floors and about 5,000 square feet of space on its third floor, as well as a basement. Its only current tenant is Cameo Catering & Event Facility, a year-old business owned by Julie Raftis and Madilyn Hutchison that occupies all of the second and third floors. Cameo holds events there such as wedding receptions, business meetings, and corporate parties, and also does off-premise catering.


Were just thrilled that theyve taken ownership and that theyre going to do some improvements, Raftis says of the womens investor group that bought the building. Were glad to be a part of it and proud to be a part of the revitalization of this whole neighborhood. Its exciting for us.


Odd Girls LLC bought the building for an undisclosed sum from Steve Livingstone and Bob Whigham, who had purchased it in February 1998 for $300,000 and had begun renovating it.


Smith, who declines for now to identify the owners of Odd Girls LLC, is an accomplished potter, former art studio owner, and co-founder and former CEO of Buckeye Beans & Herbs Inc., the once fast-growing, but now-defunct Spokane specialty foods producer. Buckeye filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in U.S. Bankruptcy Court here last spring, but Smith says the companys once-popular soup mix lines were acquired by Kent, Wash., food producer Fredericks Fine Chocolates Inc. at a bankruptcy auction this fall.


More recently, Smith had been working with Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., of Spokane, on a conceptual plan to turn the downtown Metro Block into a creative business incubator.


Metro Block is the name used for the four connected buildings that occupy most of the city block bounded by Monroe and Lincoln streets and Sprague and First avenues, west of the Davenport Hotel. Metropolitan owns the block.


Metropolitan began looking at a possible arts-oriented redevelopment of the Met Block, where The Met performing arts center still is located, but Smith says those plans faded when the growing company found it still needed the buildings there to house some of its workers.


A Downtown Spokane Development Plan draft had said that the proposed renovation of the block was being envisioned as a rebirth of Spokanes Second City.


Second City was the named used by an eclectic group of small retail shops, galleries, restaurants, and other start-up businesses that occupied the old Kroll Building, on the south side of First Avenue between Wall and Howard streets, during most of the 1970s. Due partly to the concentration of artists and crafts people that Second City attracted, and the offbeat type of atmosphere it developed, it sometimes was referred to in the news media as an alternative shopping center.


Smith, who operated a pottery studio at Second City, says, My love all along has been to have another Second City, and I havent by any means given up on that. This perhaps could be a start to another Second City, although one that would bring together a more contemporary mix of creative disciplines and artistic pursuits. I see it as being an exciting, dynamic place, she says.