Couple buys pizza restaurant in Valley

Mark and Rosemary Puyear have bought the assets of Buck's Pizza, in Spokane Valley, from Lance and Shelly Jordan, and have changed its name to Coach's Pizza.

Located in a 1,400-square-foot leased space at 13221 E. 32nd, in Spokane Valley, the take-out and delivery eatery has been in business for about 14 years.

In addition to the Puyears, the pizzeria has five part-time employees.

"I've wanted to own a pizza place ever since I started coaching 20 years ago," says Mark Puyear, who has coached many sports, including Little League, basketball, baseball, track, and high-school football, "and most pizza places cater to very young athletes. I want to cater to young adult athletes."

The couple expects to remodel the pizzeria in the future to convert it into more of a sports pub-restaurant, but a timeline for those changes hasn't been set yet.

The Puyears will be using the existing menu options while they experiment with new offerings. The restaurant makes its own dough and hand tosses it, and its signature pizza is a 24-inch Tailgater Pizza. "Buck's was a franchise, and we would not have been able to change the recipes," says Mark Puyear.

Family members who own a pizza restaurant in Yakima saw Buck's Pizza for sale online and called the Puyears. "We have worked at their restaurant and knew it would be a good fit for us," he says.

Mark Puyear previously worked in the aerospace industry in Hayden, Idaho.

Mike Bascetta owns the building and handled the lease.

—Audrey Danals


Design Spike moves into Liberty Building

Design Spike Inc., a 9-year-old, Spokane-based Web design and development company owned by Laura Bracken, has leased and moved into 1,550 square feet of office space on the second floor of the four-story Liberty Building, at 203 N. Washington, in downtown Spokane.

The company moved from smaller quarters in the Symons Building, at 7 S. Howard, Bracken says.

"There were three bars on that street, and we were the last business left there," she says, "It was a real mess in the morning, and you never knew what you were going to walk into." She also says that while the old location had 1,200 square feet of space, only about 1,000 of that was usable.

The remodel of the space in the Liberty Building will cost $70,000 to $85,000 and will include 12-foot-tall sliding barn doors for the offices.

The company employs four people including Bracken. It plans to expand within the year and likely will hire an office manager and one more designer, Bracken says.

Design Spike has around 225 clients, including Burke Marketing and its Pig Out in the Park website, Grant County, and Spokane Public Radio KPBX-FM.

Prior to 2003, Bracken was designing websites on her own. As sites continued to increase in complexity, she decided to hire more people and start Design Spike.

Joe Garst, of Windermere Real Estate/City Group LLC, handled the lease.

—Audrey Danals


Law firm to relocate in downtown Spokane

Keefe, Bowman & Bruya PS, a law practice here that emphasizes medical- and legal-malpractice defense work, is moving into a new downtown Spokane office at the end of June.

Carla Rose, administrator for the practice, says the office will open July 1 in 3,300 square feet of newly renovated space on the second level of Old City Hall, located at 221 N. Wall and overlooking Riverfront Park.

The office has eight employees, including principal owners and attorneys Dan Keefe, John Bowman, and Edward Bruya. Since 1986, the practice has been located in the Chase Financial Center, at 601 W. Main, also downtown.

Cotter Ranch Properties, owner of the six-story Old City Hall that also has an Olive Garden restaurant as one of its tenants, handled improvements made to the space to accommodate the law firm. Rose, who declines to disclose the total remodel project value, says the upgrades include new walls, paint, carpeting, tile and cabinets for five offices, a conference room, a staff work area, kitchen, and a reception area.

The law practice also handles personal-injury and insurance-defense cases. It serves clients in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

—Treva Lind


Online clothing store here launches website

Barters Closet, a Spokane-based online used clothing store, launched last month at www.barterscloset.com.

Connor Simpson and Philip Glenn, co-founders, currently run the business out of Simpson's home.

Their website currently offers for purchase both men's and women's clothing, including sweaters, shirts, jackets, dresses, and skirts. Simpson says, though, that the business plans to broaden to a more open network of bartering goods and services.

In September, the site will offer an option for the consumer to create an account and post items on their own, and Simpson says, "You will be able to sell, barter, trade, or donate." The site will take a 15 percent fee if an item is sold, but there will be no cost for bartering or donating, and Barters Closet will reimburse shipping costs for donated clothing, he says.

Simpson graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in 2010 and currently is employed as a communications officer at GreenCupboards.com, a Spokane-based online retailer of eco-friendly products for homes and businesses.

Philip Glenn and Marcus Ford are the graphic designers for the Barters Closet website, and Nathaniel Wendt is building the network.

—Audrey Danals


Spokane couple opens third auto repair shop

Guy and Misty Sauberan, of Spokane, have opened their third Spokane-area Lloyd's Automotive service center.

The service center, located at 103 E. Lincoln, a block east of Division Street on Spokane's North Side, occupies 6,500 square feet of floor space at a former site of a Big O Tires outlet.

Misty Sauberan says Lloyd's is leasing the space and is considering an option to buy it.

Sauberan says Lloyd's provides a variety of automotive repair and maintenance services, ranging from oil changes to engine overhauls. Lloyd's, which boasts the tag line "We fix everything," also is a full-service tire center, she says.

The Lincoln Road store has five employees, Sauberan says.

The couple also owns Lloyd's Automotive outlets in Spokane Valley, at 8517 E. Sprague, and on the South Hill, at 3014 E. 55th. Those shops opened, respectively, in 2005 and 2009.

The business is named for Guy's father, Lloyd Sauberan, a Post Falls businessman who owns and operates Lloyd's Tire & Automotive, at 3025 N. Government Way in Coeur d'Alene. The elder Sauberan opened that business in 1977. The four shops employ a combined total of more than 25 people, Misty Sauberan says.

—Mike McLean