Cold Storage Spokane LLC, of Anchorage, Alaska, is renovating a former warehouse at 116 W. Pacific downtown into retail, office, and possibly residential space in a phase of work valued at $1.7 million, says owner Jerry Neeser. 

Another of Neeser’s companies, Neeser Construction Inc., also based in Anchorage, is the contractor on the project, he says. Neeser says he hopes the project will be completed this fall. 

The project is occurring along a stretch of Pacific that has come to be known as “creative alley” to resident businesses there, because of an influx of arts-related tenants in the last few years. The Wetzel Building, at 114 W. Pacific, boasts a media design firm, professional photographers, a makeup artist, and an interior design business and retail furnishings shop. The building at 121 W. Pacific also was renovated late last year, and has become home to another design agency and a yoga and spin studio. 

The current Cold Storage remodel, part of a multiphase project,  involves adding parking in the basement level, bathrooms, a new elevator, stairways, and lighting, and wall finishes in the four-level, almost 38,000-square-foot structure. 

The finished building will have retail or restaurant space on the ground level, offices on the second and third level, and potentially loft residences on the fourth, Neeser says. 

“We’re creating an office out of a warehouse, basically,” he says. 

At this time, Neeser says there aren’t any signed tenants for the spaces.

Spokane firm Nystrom+Olson Architecture is providing design services for the project, and Reno, Nev.-based Engineering & Development Services did the engineering on the project, he says. 

The building, located on the north side of the street, first served as an icehouse in the early 1900s before becoming a furniture store and a warehouse, Neeser says. 

“We’re getting it on the federal historic register,” Neeser says. “I’m from Spokane originally … I just enjoy downtown Spokane and wanted to be part of bringing it back.”

Neeser says he chose the name Spokane Cold Storage LLC for the development company based on the name on the building’s exterior. The building originally was occupied in the early 1900s by Omaha, Neb.-based Fairmont Creamery that used the office space and Northwestern Cold Storage Co., later changed to Arctic Cold Storage & Warehouse Co.