Dolphin Enterprises LLC, a family-owned business of three generations, has started construction on a building at 6818 E. Sprague, in Spokane Valley, including a replacement structure for a paint store that was destroyed by a fire there in February 2019.

Walls Construction Corp., of Spokane, is the general contractor on the roughly $1.3 million project, according to a city of Spokane Valley building permit.

Dolphin Enterprises had leased the building to Rodda Paint Co., of Portland, Oregon starting in late 2012. The company is continuing its discussions with Rodda about moving back into a 9,000-square-foot main building planned at the East Sprague site, says Denise Coyle, Dolphin Enterprises manager.

“I’ll just say, it is our desire to have Rodda as the featured tenant,” says Coyle, whose father also managed the business her grandfather founded.

Rodda district manager Brad Gisolo declines to comment, referring inquiries to Coyle.

Since the fire, Rodda has made its home at 409 N. Thierman, a mile north of the East Sprague location.

In addition to the buildings main retail space currently being constructed, Dolphin Enterprises has four additional spaces and is searching for tenants to occupy those spaces, Coyle says.

The interiors of the other spaces won’t be finished until Dolphin Enterprises has a better idea about what types of tenants it can secure, Coyle says.

Dolphin Enterprises has owned the property for a number of years, but only within the last decade or so did it take ownership of the building that burned.

At the end of 2012, Rodda agreed to lease the building from Dolphin, which previously had been leasing the building to the former Spokane Chrysler auto dealership, according to a Journal story from October 2012.

Vince Saccheri, Rodda’s then Spokane-based regional operations manager, told the Journal the 12,000 square feet of floor space there was twice the size of the store it was replacing at 5417 E. Broadway.