Mountain Dog Sign moves to bigger space

 

Mountain Dog Sign Co. has relocated its sign manufacturing facility in an effort to streamline and expand its operations. 

The business moved earlier this summer from its 3,500-square-foot space in the Meadowwood Technology Campus, at 24001 E. Mission, in Liberty Lake, to a 6,600-square-foot location at 1620 N. Mamer Road, in Spokane Valley.  

Marshon Kempf is the company’s primary owner. She and her husband Steve started the custom signage company in 2011. The company currently employs seven additional people.

“We’ve seen about 35 percent growth over the last two years,” she says. “The old location began to present space and parking constraints as we grew.”

Mountain Dog offers a variety of products and services focused around the design, fabrication, and installation of both interior and exterior signage. Its products include Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant Braille signs, vehicle wraps, directional signage, and trade show exhibits, among others.

Some of Mountain Dog’s recent projects include interior signage for the Kootenai Health expansion, the Ruby Suites remodel, and a metal and glass display wall for UTC Aerospace Systems as well as signage for the new Liberty Creek Elementary School. 

Kempf says the new space features 4,400 of contiguous space for sign manufacturing, and includes two 14-foot-tall garage bay doors for easy access. Offices and a conference room take up the other 2,200 square feet of space.

Mountain Dog primarily serves customers throughout Washington and Idaho, but continues to look for opportunities to grow its presence in new commercial construction, the manufacturing industry, and government contracts.

—LeAnn Bjerken

 

Seva Beauty slated in Airway Heights

 

Beauty in Spokane LLC, which will do business as a Seva Beauty spa franchisee, plans to open its first location this month in a leased 550-square-foot space in the Airway Heights’ Walmart store, at 1221 S. Hayford Road, says Jason Bleick, who co-owns the business with his wife Karen.

The spa will offer eyebrow shaping via waxing or threading, facials, full body waxing, special treatment for acne, makeup application, eyebrow tinting, and eyelash extensions. Seva Beauty also will sell the Seva Beauty skin care line and a makeup line by Pop Beauty, he says.

Bleick describes Seva Beauty as a “fast-casual spa” and says, “We’re kind of doing what McDonald’s did for food, but we’re doing it with the spa industry.”

Bleick says he and his wife wanted to bring a spa experience to Spokane, “and not just to the people with money, but to everyone.”

“You don’t need to spend an arm and a leg and spend hours in a spa to feel beautiful … we’re trying to get people to feel beautiful without having to spend their whole paycheck,” says Bleick.

Seva Beauty will be open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The business will employ 11 people, with a mix of full-time and part-time workers, says Bleick.

He says the Airway Heights outlet will be the first in the Spokane area, but Seva Beauty, headquartered in Highland Park, Ill., lists a total of about 200 locations on its website.

 

—Samantha Howard

 

Veteran to open South Hill bakery

 

A new bakery, Twenty-Seventh Heaven LLC, plans to open in about 1,500 square feet of space at 1220 S. Grand Blvd. by the end of September, says owner Lydia Cowles.

The scratch-made baking business will specialize in coffee cakes, artisan bread, and cupcakes in standard and mini sizes, says Cowles. It also will offer beverages, including coffee from Vessel Coffee Roasters, she says. 

Cowles says the business will go for a “modern retro feel, with simple craft boxes from bakeries of old.”

The bakery also will try to use as many local ingredients as possible, says Cowles. All flour will come from Shephard’s Grain, which grows its grain along U.S. 2, she says.

Cowles, who recently left active duty from the U.S. Navy, says she was trying to decide what to do when discharged from duty. 

“I just kind of played around with scratch baking, and I got hooked,” she says.

Cowles received her professional baking certification from Spokane Community College in March and received her Integrated Business and Entrepreneurship certification in June, also from SCC, she says. She is the only employee of Twenty-Seventh Heaven and will be working full time when the business opens.

Twenty-Seventh Heaven’s planned hours of operation are Tuesday to Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

—Samantha Howard

 

ABC Office plans store in Colville

 

ABC Office Equipment Co., a longtime office supply company located at 7322 E. Broadway in Spokane Valley, says it plans to open a store in Colville by early October.

“We currently have an active employee working there and will be growing in that area,” says MiaCate Kennedy, ABC Office’s director of technology solutions. 

ABC Office President and CEO Mike Brandon recently hired Kennedy at the Valley store as the company continues to expand its print and network services.

The company has a small customer base in Colville and sees an opportunity to expand it, Brandon says. It’s continuing to look for a permanent space in that small city, which is about 70 miles north of Spokane.

ABC Office Equipment sells and services copiers and printers, in addition to selling, installing, and configuring networks for businesses.

Says Kennedy, “We do technology network management, including essential IT support and management, which includes workstations, backup, security, and servers.”

Founded in 1952, ABC Office Equipment operates out of 16,000 square feet of space in a standalone building and provides services to approximately 1,500 customers per month, Brandon says.

The company employs 25 workers, most of them full time. Five years ago, the company had 14 total employees.

 

—Kevin Blocker