Moving, but not yet

Jarms Hardware owner Tom Jarms said he had a couple calls last weekend when word came out that the family-owned business on Second Street was moving to a new location next to the Trading Company at 6 Cheney-Spangle Road. Apparently some believed the business that has spent more than 35 years in Cheney was moving out of town.

“Because you know there’s another Trading Company at the other end of the road,” Jarms said, referring to the grocery store located just off SR 195 in Latah Valley.

Jarms said Monday that they’re not moving out of town, and in fact, a potential move to the former location of the Ben Franklin variety store is still up in the air. A short article in the Jan. 18 Spokesman Review indicated a press release had given an “expected move-in date of sometime this summer, depending on the sale or lease of the current property.”

Jarms said it’s a bit more complicated than that.

The hardware store’s current location at 1720 Second St. began a listing with Spokane commercial Realtor Kiemle & Hagood in December 2012. The 16,020 square foot building on a 41,310 square foot lot size has a sale price of $1.3 million or a lease price of $8 a square foot along with payment of other costs associated with the property such as maintenance and taxes.

Jarms said the terms of his current mortgage preclude him from maintaining a mortgage while also leasing another property. Moving into the 22,000 square foot ex-Ben Franklin location revolves around getting a good offer from a prospective tenant for Jarms Hardware’s current location while at the same time striking a deal with the Cheney-Spokane Road property owners.

“If I get a good enough offer on my building, and I get a good enough offer on their building, I’m going to take it,” he said.

Attempts to contact the Spokane-area owners of the former Ben Franklin property for comment were unsuccessful.

Jarms said Kiemle & Hagood is aware of the situation, but from a commercial listing point of view needed to get something out about the property’s availability. From the point of view of Cheney customers, Jarms said nothing has changed.

“Until all those stars have aligned, it doesn’t make much difference,” he added.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.