The Cheney Depot Society has inked a new tenant for the restored 96-year-old Northern Pacific Railroad depot located in Cheney.

Eastern Coffee Roasters has leased the space from the nonprofit and is expected to open a retail coffee shop out of the 2,200-square-foot depot building, at 15 Union Street, late this year. The company will serve its signature coffee blends and offer a variety of simple menu items, says co-owner Jeff Wright. 

“We don’t want to be a full-blown restaurant but do recognize we want to have good food in here,” Wright says.

Wright co-owns Eastern Coffee Roasters with his wife, April, and his daughter, Rachel Gorsuch.

Although not a full restaurant, the coffee shop will feature three dining areas, including the depot’s former luggage room that will open to the coffee roasting area, a conference room for meetings and study sessions, and an outdoor patio.

“We are relocating our roasting facilities and will be roasting our coffee directly in front of customers,” says Wright. “It’s the modern convenience of a coffee shop located in a historical building.”

The company will maintain the historical ambiance of the depot, Wright says.

“We shared (the Cheney Depot Society’s board’s) vision of how we could keep things historical,” he says. “A large majority of the interior will be historic artifacts from the train station related to the 30s provided by the depot society.”

Founded in December of 2023, Eastern Coffee Roasters has a coffee roasting facility in Cheney and currently operates as an online coffee store selling to retailers in locations throughout Eastern Washington. 

Jill Weiszmann, a Cheney Depot Society board member and its treasurer, says the company approached them when they were looking for a retail space for its online company.

"It was just a godsend," she says.

The renovation and relocation of the historic Spanish-style depot was facilitated by the Cheney Depot Society, a nonprofit group formed by Cheney locals who came together to save the depot from demolition by the BNSF Railway Co. in 2015.

“This came to us when the BNSF filed a (demolition) permit with the city of Cheney,” Weiszmann says. “They were going to demo the building because it was on railroad property, and it fit between two railroad lines.”

Spokane-based Walker Construction Inc. and D.B. Davis Structural Moving & Rising, of Everett, Washington, moved the building from its original location, between active BNSF tracks near College Avenue, to its new location between Union and I Street in 2020, Weiszmann says. Part of the property was donated by a community member, and the nonprofit purchased the rest.

Terry Mourning & Associates, of Spokane, worked with the depot society on the restoration of the depot. The company is currently working with Eastern Coffee Roasters on the new design.