Signs say Cheney still a good place to do business

The recent building boom for business in Cheney appears to back up what NAI-Black commercial real estate broker Brian Anderson is saying about the community.

"People like it, businesses that come here like it," Anderson said.

A Cheney resident, Anderson said he receives plenty of calls from investors. "People want to buy stuff in Cheney. Apartment buildings almost never turn." Commercial buildings rarely come up for sale, either, he said. "The overall vibe is positive."

One, however, cannot help but notice a significant number of vacant storefronts in Cheney, but it's not really as bad as it would seem.

"We're doing well, we have the opposite problem where we have more companies that want to be on First Street and we don't know where to put them," Anderson said.

Anderson and his fellow brokers keep close track of Eastern Washington. "In Spokane when you look at retail, vacancy on the South Hill is 3 percent, the Valley is 16, the Northside is 11, downtown on the street is 8, on the second floor it's like 20."

The numbers are all over the board, Anderson said. Cheney is probably under 15 percent, but "is above the fold with a higher than average vacancy rate."

Recently some major properties found tenants in Cheney. Most visible, perhaps, is the former Gatto's Pizza Parlor, which has become home to the Marketplace Cheney. The former Jarms Ace hardware store will soon be home to a CHAS health clinic.

"We've been working on that for a long time," Anderson said.

And the closed Willow Springs restaurant just opened as Cheney Brewing Co., with the emphasis on coffee and food, not beer - for now at least - an employee said.

The properties in downtown owned by developer Steve Emtman are basically full Anderson said.

The city is two separate markets, Anderson explained. There's the downtown area that caters to walk-in traffic. The other area is the northern part of the city, in the vicinity between Safeway and Trading Company.

"Everything between where basically Jarms (Hardware) building is, everything between that and downtown is really tough," Anderson said.

An example is the former Napa Auto Parts building, one Anderson called unique. "It's a bigger building than most people need in a downtown area," he said.

Anderson said he started in the residential side of real estate so he knows both sides of the business. "Houses are about getting visibility," but "We do a lot of work (in commercial) that never hits the market."

On the commercial side, a property is targeted to a specific audience. Most of the commercial deals that are completed come as a result of plenty of behind the scenes work, some taking upwards of two years to finalize. Anderson said he may contact upwards of 200 potential businesses in an effort to fill a vacancy.

"There is always more going on than people know," Anderson said.

"We've got a couple of deals in Airway (Heights) that are almost done that have been four years in the can," Anderson said. He hopes to announce those in the next couple of weeks.

Anderson works primarily with the tenant side.

"We'll have a tenant that needs a building that doesn't exist and we'll get it built, sold and financed," Anderson said. Most of the properties he lists have no signs. "I probably have 30 or 40 listings; I work hard on them."

The 2007-09 recession hurt a lot of business, and is still having its effects. But that's primarily on the financial side where, because of new banking rules, money for small start-ups - the types of businesses that gravitate to some of the storefronts - is hard to get.

Big corporations have a much easier stream of cash. "But the mom and pop's, the banking regulations have really hurt them, some of the health care related taxes have hurt them" Anderson said.

Overall, Anderson thinks Cheney is doing OK and that is evident by new business construction .

"There are people that want to be in Cheney, obviously O'Reilly is a big deal, Cellular Plus, they feel like Cheney can support a nice new building," Anderson said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.