An investor group plans to transform eight buildings in the west 1000 block of First Avenue downtown into a creative center and business incubator for arts-related entrepreneurs.


The group, known as Odd Girls LLC, of Spokane, has bought the buildings over the last three and a half years and is calling the rehabilitation project RailSide Center. The buildings include the former Odd Fellows Hall in the center of the block, the Madison Apartment Building on the west end of the block, the former Music City building on the east end of the block, and other smaller buildings that either fill in the block or face the alley south of it.


Jill Smith, one of three owners of Odd Girls, estimates the projects value at $4.5 million, which will include the amounts that were paid for the buildings. The companys other owners are Ann Wyman and Wade Ballinger, both of Spokane. Smith also owns EarthGoods LLC, which runs a hemp-goods company at 1011 W. First.


Smith likens the project to Second City, which was the name used by a group of retail shops, galleries, restaurants, and other businesses housed in the old Kroll Building, on the south side of First Avenue between Wall and Howard streets, during most of the 1970s. It was the birthplace of a number of long-lasting businesses and events.


We were a creative incubator; we just didnt realize it, she says. Thats what we want to do again.


In 1999, the Downtown Spokane Development Plan included a project similar to RailSide Center, that it said was being considered for the Metro Block, bordered by Monroe and Lincoln streets and Sprague and First avenues. That project never came to fruition, and Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. now is building a large new concert venue on that block.


However, with the support of local business owners, former judges, attorneys, teachers, and other people in the community, the RailSide Center project is under way again, albeit at a new location, Smith says.


The first phase of the RailSide Center project will include renovating the Odd Fellows Hall, at 1017 W. First, into an office, theater, performing arts, and catering center. The building has about 19,000 square feet of floor space on three floors, says Smiths husband, Doug. The building was renovated in 1998 and was the site of a catering business for a time after that. Odd Girls LLC is doing some additional work, such as painting and floor refinishing there now.


CenterStage, a new community theater, is expected to be the primary tenant in the building. Run by Tim Behrens, a longtime Spokane-based actor, CenterStage will host dinner and cabaret theater performances, musical events, and poetry readings, and offer rehearsal space for small and medium-size arts organizations.


CenterStage will have access to at least three performance areas in the building, including a large ballroom on the second floor, a smaller ballroom on the main floor, and a meeting hall on the third floor that could be used for recitals, rehearsals, or even wedding ceremonies, Behrens says.


Well have entertainment options up the kazoo, he says. Couples could have their weddings here and then hire us to perform selected scenes from Romeo and Juliet at the reception.


The first theater performance there, A, My Name is Alice, will be held April 24, Behrens says.


Another component CenterStage plans to include is a theater-education program for at-risk youths. Recently retired Superior Court judges James Murphy and Michael Donohue are on CenterStages newly formed board of directors and will be involved in developing the curriculum for the program, Behrens says.


He hopes to begin the program this fall or next winter. Its contingent upon funding, however, which he hopes can be found through donation, grant, drug court, school district, or other money.


Also in the Odd Fellows building will be a catering company run by Kyle Tansy, former head chef at Quinns restaurant, Behrens says.


Within two years, Odd Girls plans to expand the performance uses for the buildings first-floor ballroom and open an alley caf at the back of the building. Businesses already are in operation along the alley, including Tryst Coffeehouse & Juice Bar and Art by Yourself, and Doug Smith says he plans to continue that theme through the entire alley, which he has asked the city to rename RailSide Alley.


Plans are in the early, formative stages for the other buildings. The Madison Apartment Building now has tenants, but later could be converted into upscale apartments and condominiums, Smith says.


Jill Smith says she hopes to fill the buildings with retail shops and offices, such as for a high-tech startup company seeking a creative environment in which to work. Business are already filling space, she says. An art gallery opened recently on the main floor of the Madison Apartment Building, and PEACH Safe Foods, a Spokane-based organic foods delivery company, plans to move there soon, she says.


Smith says she wants the block to be a center not just for galleries, but for alternative or creative enterprises.


Creative people like to bounce ideas off each other, Smith says. We want to give people the opportunity to start a creative business without the fear of losing everything.