Advanced Auto Fabrication LLC is developing a new $2.6 million, 22,000-square-foot vehicle fabrication, maintenance, and storage complex that’s currently under construction in the city of Deer Park.

Advanced Auto Fabrication co-owner Hank Moore says the development, which is expected to be completed this summer, includes a 12,000-square-foot auto fabrication and mechanic shop with office space and a separate 9,000-square-foot vehicle-storage facility on an 8-acre parcel of land at 200 N. Cedar Road, in Deer Park.

“We’ve got inside and outside storage and a nice-sized paved parking area for the business,” Moore says. “The structures are up. The asphalt is down. The lawn is in, and … we’re still putting in some gravel for the outside parking, but for the most part, the outside is pretty well buttoned up.”

He adds, “Inside the building, we’re still moving in and setting up and there’s still some work to do in the shower.”

Moore, who co-owns Advanced Auto Fabrication with his wife, Samantha, says the business has moved from a smaller warehouse in Spokane Valley and currently is open for business while construction wraps up. 

“We’re not quite doing the business we were doing in Spokane yet, but some people don’t realize we’re open again,” he says.

Newman Lake-based Stevens Construction LLC is the project contractor. No architect is involved in the design of the project, Moore says.

Construction began about a year ago, about a year after J&H DP Properties LLC, of Liberty Lake, purchased the property in June 2022 for $299,000, according to Washington state tax information.

Moore and business partner Jim Dinneen co-own J&H DP Properties, a real estate investment company.

Advanced Auto Fabrication manufactures and develops custom parts, including turbo setups and intake and exhaust components. The business can accommodate other fabrication work for high performance as needed.

The majority of Advanced Auto Fabrication’s business is focused on high-performance automobiles and race cars, but the company also can service daily driving cars, says Moore. 

Some of the company’s clients are other specialty vehicle shops in the U.S. and race car and hot rod owners.

“We have customers that own race cars that leave them with us and then meet us at the race track to race their cars. Then we take it back home to our shop and get it ready to go again, where we do full-service car care for race cars,” Moore explains. “We plan to take cars individually kind of like a concierge service.”

The storage building can hold about 60 vehicles, Moore says.

Advanced Auto Fabrication has seven employees who specialize in servicing BMWs, but also provide services for many other automobile brands, including Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo.

The company currently is hiring, adds Moore.

“We work on cars from all over the place and have customers all over the area too. We’ll do pickups and drop offs … We’re a very different company,” he says. 

Overall, Moore says that relocating the company to Deer Park was a good move in many ways.

“It’s further for some of our customers and closer for others,” says Moore. “We’re kind of a destination shop anyway. It’s certainly taken a bit of the daily business away from what we do and we’ve felt that a bit, but overall, I think it will return tenfold because the area here is growing so fast and there’s not enough service (shops) here.”

The Moores grew up near Deer Park and currently live in the community, so the new business location has reduced the commute for the couple by an hour a day, he says.

Advanced Auto Fabrication’s proximity to Deer Park Airport, located at 712 N. Cedar Road, also is expected to improve business, he says. 

“Our property butts up against airport property. We’re just a half-mile or less from the entry to the airport that’s a great thing for us as our business tends to make some noise,” he says. “Already, we’re working with one of the people at the airport to manufacture some aircraft products. It’s definitely a good thing all around.”

Project update

Site work will begin soon for a $1.25 million Circle K convenience store and gas station planned at the southwest corner of Hamilton Street and North Foothills Drive.

As planned, the project will include a 4,000-square-foot fuel canopy with 10 pumps, a 5,200-square-foot convenience store, and a 1,400-square-foot car wash, according to permit information on file with the city of Spokane.

Meridian Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor for the project. The project along Hamilton Street will be the fourth Circle K built in recent years by Meridian, following the construction of convenience stores in Airway Heights, Post Falls, and Spokane Valley.

Atlanta-based Greenberg Farrow Architecture Inc. is designing the project, and Raleigh, North Carolina-based Kimley-Horn & Associates Inc., is the project engineer, permit information shows.

Circle K Stores Inc. purchased the 1.5-acre property for $2.3 million in January from a division of Spokane-based Lawrence B. Stone Properties LLC, according to Washington state tax information.

The convenience store will be the eighth Circle K in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area.