Clock shop reopens, expands retail area

Spokane Clock, a clock repair and restoration shop on Spokane's North Side, has reopened and expanded its retail showroom after that portion of the business was struck and damaged by a passing vehicle in late February, requiring renovations.

The shop, located at 3140 N. Division, occupies 800 square feet of leased space formerly occupied by Ed's Barber Shop. Owners Nat and Marjorie Williams had opened the shop only weeks before the accident, which destroyed two grandfather clocks and damaged three others.

As part of the building repairs, the front end of the business was revamped a bit, Nat Williams says, and now has about 35 clocks displayed in its enlarged showroom, more than triple what it had there before.

He says he plans to make other improvements to the shop, including moving the main entrance and turning that angled space at the southwest corner of the building along Division into a display window for grandfather clocks. He says he also plans to add a machine area for doing more technical repairs than he currently is able to perform there.

Spokane Clock specializes in the repair and restoration of vintage, mechanical, antique, and street clocks. Before opening the shop, Williams had worked with antique clocks for more than 30 years and previously worked at Larsen's Clock Center with Dave Larsen, who died in the spring of 2009. Williams continued to work at Larsen's Clock Center with Leo Tracy, of L&M Clock & Watch Repair, until Tracy closed the shop a few months later.

—Kim Crompton

Consignment shop opens on North Side

Melissa Roth, of Spokane, has opened Grand Estate Consignment LLC, at 7104 N. Division on Spokane's North Side, with an inventory of furniture, antiques, collectibles, gift items, and toys.

Roth launched the business in early May and is its sole owner. The store carries some new retail items but mainly stocks inventory of items sold on consignment.

A major focus is outdoor furniture, says Roth's husband, Brandon Roth, who assisted with the business's set up. The store's prices for items typically run about 40 to 50 percent below retail, he says.

"We also have kids' furniture, and a lot of art, a lot of crystal, glass, and silver antiques," Brandon Roth says. "We have new items from other stores, generally online stores that don't have a storefront physically in town, so this is an outlet for them."

Ideal Outdoor Concepts is one of those online stores, he says. Grand Estate will offer its consignment sellers online access with a password in order to check on the status of items and request payment when they sell. Consigners receive 60 percent of what an item sells for in the store.

The store's 4,000-square-foot leased space is next to a Sherwin-Williams Co. paint store. Other than Roth, the store will have three part-time employees.

—Treva Lind

Gallery co-op moves to Crescent skywalk

Avenue West Gallery, a Spokane art gallery co-op that has been in business since 2003, has leased a 1,600-square-foot, skywalk-level space in the Crescent Court building, at 707 W. Main, in downtown Spokane.

The gallery will move to the new location July 1 from its present quarters at 112 S. Monroe, says Chuck Harmon, an artist and marketing representative who has been with the co-op since last October.

"First Fridays are the only day we really get any traffic," Harmon says about the current location, and the hope is that the new location will generate more traffic.

The new location is across from a Spokane Teacher's Credit Union branch and a Hi-Tek Nails outlet, and down a hall from the Melting Pot. Harmon says new businesses are coming in there on a regular basis.

The lease was handled by Cody George, of Kiemle & Hagood Co. There will be some remodeling, says Harmon, mostly sweat equity, including building walls to display art, and interior design.

The co-op is made up of 18 artists who pay monthly dues and rotate at the gallery helping customers.

—Audrey Danals

Valley consignment clothing store opens

New 2 U, a new women's and children's consignment store, has leased and moved into 650 square feet of leased space previously occupied by a yoga studio at 11128 E. Sprague, in Spokane Valley.

The store opened late last month, and has been filling up rapidly, says owner Heather Kortness. The store will consign children's clothing and women's clothing up to size 22. The store also carries accessories for both women and children.

"I have one child and four stepchildren, and I was looking for an outlet to sell children's clothing," Kortness says, adding, "This was a way to fulfill a dream of opening a store and selling some of my extra clothing."

The store takes in items on consignment and sells them, splitting the proceeds of each sale with the original owner. All items that the store is unable to sell are donated to Inland Northwest Baby, a Spokane-area nonprofit organization.

Kortness attends school full time as well as operating the store. She is due to receive her medical office specialist associate's degree from Spokane Community College in June. She says she will continue operating her store, hoping to grow it and possibly branch out to Spokane's North Side and the Coeur d'Alene area.

She is the store's only employee.

—Audrey Danals

Gibby Media makes discs for Idaho utility

Gibby Media Group, a Spokane Valley multimedia production company, says it recently completed a sizable informational project for Pend Oreille Public Utility District No. 1, based in Newport, Wash.

In April, Gibby produced just over 2,000 DVD-compatible interactive digital discs that the district mailed to residents to inform them of the installation of fiber optics in the region. The PUD was the recipient of a $27.3 million federal grant to install broadband service to unserved and underserved rural communities in the county.

Gibby Media Group CEO Lon Gibby says the company completed the informational discs for the PUD in three business days with staff-produced scripting, video, and interactive content to explain the benefits of fiber optics for the county's residents. The project costs came in under $20,000, he says.

He says the district needed a way to tell the story of the broadband project and to help residents understand the installation. "They needed to get their permission to get fiber optics to their homes, even though the residents aren't required to sign up for the service," Gibby says.

The PUD mailed the discs within brochures to utility district residents. Gibby Media Group produces what it calls "Green ThinDiscs" that are lightweight and flexible so they won't break when mailed. The disc product also has Gibby's proprietary software that enables it to work in different media and allows Internet links, whether used in a DVD player or on a computer.

—Treva Lind

Pediatric clinic buys, moves into building

The Kids Clinic, a Spokane-area pediatric health care practice owned by Drs. Jon Lee and Matt Thompson and in business since 2007, has bought and moved into a 4,750-square-foot office building on Spokane's lower South Hill, next to the Glover Mansion and just west of Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children's Hospital.

The clinic moved from smaller quarters at 1028 W. 5th, says Jen Ash, practice administrator.

The building where the clinic now is located, at 319 W. 8th, was constructed in 1960 and formerly was occupied by the O'Connor Monaghan & Somers Inc. architectural firm.

Lee and Thompson bought the building for $489,000, and a $232,000 remodel is nearing completion, says Ash. Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, is handling the remodel, and Mathew Collins, of Uptic Studios Inc., of Spokane, is the architect for the project.

The practice employs 10 people, including the two doctors.

—Audrey Danals