Paul and Scott Jacob, owners of Gemelli Coffee Roasting, say they plan to convert a former office building at 2502 E. Sprague into a new bean roasting facility.

The twin brothers also own and operate Jacob’s Java, a local coffee business that began in 1992 with a stand at Sixth Avenue and Washington Street, and now includes six locations.

Paul Jacob says Gemelli Coffee Roasting has been operating in a leased space at 418 W. First in downtown Spokane for the past 13 years. 

“It was time for our own space, so we purchased this new building last April to serve as our roasting facility,” he says. 

Jacob says the 4,800-square-foot building comes with a 5,000-square foot adjacent parking lot and was previously an eye glasses shop. 

 “We plan to use the back half of the building for our roasting operations and lease out the front half to another tenant,” he says. “We’re still waiting on some permits, but once they’re issued we should be able to just roll along.” 

While a contractor hasn’t yet been chosen, Jacob says the space is being designed by Luke Grimsrud of Spokane-based Uptic Studios.

“We expect it will take about three months to have the space completed,” he says. “We’re also in talks with a soon-to-be-announced tenant who will occupy the front of the building.”

Jacob says the new roasting space will have just one other employee, in addition to himself and Scott. 

“We’ve got some cool stuff planned, so we’re pretty excited about this space,” he says.