Cascade Equipment Co., which sells tractors, farm implements, tools, and parts mostly to small-acreage farmers, and also services the equipment, says it is moving from Spokane Valley to larger quarters in East Spokane.

Scott Dashiell, who owns the business with his father, Paul Dashiell, says the company is relocating this month from a 2,500-square-foot leased space at 13417 E. Trent to a 4,500-square-foot building at 5019 E. Trent that it's buying for $220,000 from Terence Swenhaugen. Dashiell says the decision to move the business was not the result of growth, but rather came from a desire to build equity.

"If you're going to be struggling to make it, you might as well own something and be struggling to make it," he says. Dashiell says he and his father have demolished a condemned building on the property on Trent, plan to use that cleared area as a sales lot, and are renovating the remaining building. He declines to disclose the cost of the renovations, but says, "the bill keeps going up."

Small-acreage farming was growing in the Spokane-area before the recession hit, Dashiell says.

Mostly, it's done by professionals who want hobby farms, but the trend has leveled off.

Cascade Equipment has one full-time employee in addition to Scott Dashiell and one part-time employee and has been in business for seven years. It offers Branson, Massey-Ferguson, and Mahindra tractors, Husqvarna power equipment, Kawasaki engines, and Woods utility vehicles and parts, and maintains an in-house financing department for equipment purchases.