Vault Fitness opens in old bank building

Fitness trainer Eric Stone has opened Vault Fitness in a former Bank of America branch building, at 3009 E. Olympic in Hillyard.

Stone, 46, says the building has a total of 9,000 square feet that he is leasing. For now, he’s only using 3,800 square feet for workout space and hasn’t determined what he will do with the unused space.

With just word-of-mouth advertising, Stone says he has roughly 60 clients participating primarily in group fitness classes.

He says his area of emphasis centers on what he calls sustainable fitness. 

“I will judge my success based on the fewest number of injuries my clients may suffer in the gym,” he says.

Stone places an emphasis on core strength and joint health. He employs the use of resistance bands, suspension training, kettle bells and medicine ball work, he says.

Raised in Priest River, Stone says he weighed 300 pounds just four years ago. With a change in lifestyle and diet, Stone says he dropped 100 pounds in a year and continued his training in the last couple of years.

In the process, however, Stone says he began developing a passion for helping people change their lifestyles and diet.

“I’ve been there. I was there for most my life,” Stone says. “It didn’t occur to me that my life could be different. I think it’s why I’ve been able to build a customer base in a short period of time. I share my story. I show them pictures of what I once looked like. People can identify with me.”

 “I’ve gotten a really positive response so far. It’s been fun; I’m enjoying helping people,” he says.

—Kevin Blocker

 

Nodland out, Terra Blanca in downtown

Nodland Cellars closed its downtown Spokane tasting room last weekend, and Terra Blanca Winery & Estate Vineyard, of Benton City, Wash., has taken over the space.

The tasting room, which Nodland opened a year ago, occupied a 1,700-square-foot leased space on the main floor of the Chronicle Building, at 926 W. Sprague. Its amenities include a kitchen and outside seating in an adjoining shared courtyard that was updated last year with a formal entry sign, fire pit, water feature, pergola, and trellis work and landscaping.

Tim Nodland, Nodland Cellars’ owner and winemaker, said he closed the tasting room to convert the winery, which operates a winemaking facility at 11616 E. Montgomery, to a small-production, wine club-only business model. Its wine club currently includes about 300 members, he says.

Nodland, who is a practicing attorney by day, opened the winery in 2005. It produced 1,200 cases of wine last year, but Nodland says he plans to reduce that to a couple of hundred cases a year.

The winery sold the equipment and fixtures in the tasting room to Keith and ReNae Pilgrim, owners of Terra Blanca. The Pilgrims started Terra Blanca in 1992 with the purchase of 300 acres of land on Red Mountain on the eastern edge of the Yakima Valley. Their winery now produces about 35,000 cases of wine a year under four labels.

Keith Pilgrim says Terra Blanca plans to bring its full restaurant license to the Chronicle Building space, but initially will make only minor tweaks to the food menu currently offered there, and will offer beer in addition to wine.

—Kim Crompton

Adoption agency changes its name 

Spokane Consultants in Family Living: Open Adoption Services has changed its name to Adoption Services of Spokane.

“It became very clear to us it was time to simplify the name and identity of our agency as a long established and comprehensive agency,” says Nancy Johnson, Adoption Services’ director.

Established in 1987, Adoption Services is a for-profit Washington-licensed child-placing agency that occupies the lower level of an older home converted to office space at 1623 W. Gardner. The agency has been there since 1992 and employs four people.

“When people hear that we’re located in the house on Ash near the north entrance to the Maple Street Bridge, they immediately know who we are,” says Johnson, adding that being for-profit reduces layers of bureaucracy making it more affordable for couples to adopt.

For nearly 30 years, the adoption agency has assisted birth parents and infertile couples in their decision to place and adopt. In open adoption, a birth mother gets to select her child’s adoptive parents.

Johnson says the agency places 25 newborns or infants per year on average, exclusively with infertile couples looking to adopt.

“That’s always been our stated mission. We provide counseling and take care of the birth mothers, or the birthing couple, and provide assistance to the adopting couple,” she says.

—Kevin Blocker

Restaurateurs open bar, eatery near core

Local restaurant owners Jeremy and Kate Hansen have begun two new ventures, both of which are located in the old Washington Cracker Co. building, at 304 W. Pacific. 

While the two establishments each have their own names and separate spaces within the Washington Cracker building, the Hansens are operating them both through a company they formed under the name Squid & Bull LLC. One of them, the Hogwash Whiskey Den, opened in November in a 1,500-square-foot space on the building’s basement level. 

Hogwash serves craft cocktails and some food items, including sandwiches and desserts. The bar is open four nights a week and employs 10 people. Its kitchen area also doubles as a catering kitchen for the building’s event center. 

“Hogwash has been well received so far,” Jeremy Hansen says. “People seem to enjoy it, and it stays consistently busy.” 

The couple’s other business, which opened in early January, is a 2,000-square-foot, full-service restaurant on the building’s first floor. 

Called Inland Pacific Kitchen, the restaurant features themed menus that include small items based on world cultures, history, storytelling and other focuses. Inland also offers cocktails, wine, and beers. 

Hansen describes Inland Pacific Kitchen as an opportunity to experiment with more creative, progressive cooking styles. 

“This base upstairs is more a chance for me to play around a bit,” he says. “It’s about quality food, but also keeping plates small and service fast.” 

In addition to these new restaurants, the Hansens also own Sante’ restaurant in the Liberty Building, at 404 W. Main, and the Common Crumb Artisan Bakery, at 19 W. Main.

-LeAnn Bjerken