Apr. 7—COLFAX — A spacious kitchen where aspiring chefs can refine their dishes is the focal point of a restaurant incubator expected to debut early this summer in downtown Colfax.
The hope of downtown Colfax business owners is that the 3,521-square-foot incubator in a former bank on the northeast corner of Main and Spring streets will make the up-and-coming commercial district even more of a destination.
A collection of stores carrying locally sourced goods, clothing, gifts and furniture has earned Colfax a reputation among University of Idaho and Washington State University students as a good place to take visiting parents.
It’s also drawing day-trippers from the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley and Spokane. Its distance between the two places is increasingly being seen as a strength. Often groups of friends congregating in Colfax, include people from both communities.
But the town’s appeal would be even greater if it had more restaurants, said Valoree Gregory, an owner of the Colfax Mercantile.
Some of the few options are Serfes Foods, which is closed weekends; Westside Pizza, which has no inside seating;Los Amigos, a Mexican restaurant; and The Cellar, a wine bar open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays with a limited menu.
The restaurant incubator is expected to fill at least some of that gap, encouraging shoppers to extend their time in Colfax’s downtown.
“We don’t have anywhere with an outdoor patio area that’s centrally located in the heart of downtown,” said Whitney Bond, executive director of the Colfax Downtown Association, the group launching the incubator, largely with a $2.26 million grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce.
One way the incubator might work would be to have two restaurants with separate owners, according to information on the Colfax Downtown Association website. The deadline to apply for this venture was Friday.
One incubator restaurant would specialize in breakfast and lunch and another would feature dinner, according to the association’s website.
But the Colfax Downtown Association is open to any concept that aligns with the spirit of the project, according to its website.
“(The incubator is) a collaborative space where culinary creativity knows no bounds,” according to the website. “Here both operators will have the opportunity to explore new ideas, experiment with flavors and bring their culinary visions to life.”
One possible division of the space would involve one tenant using the incubator until 2 p.m., when it would shift to the other tenant that would run it until close. Ideally between the two, it would be open from early morning until late evening.
“Tenants will be required to be open on the weekends — at least on Saturdays — with a goal of being open on Sundays within the first six months of operation,” according to the website.
The arrangement was developed to benefit the entrepreneurs selected to fill the space as well as shoppers and existing Colfax businesses, Bond said.
One of the biggest perks the incubator offers is dramatically reducing the high start-up costs that normally go with introducing a new restaurant, such as renovating a space, buying kitchen equipment and purchasing tables and chairs for dining, she said.
And the incubator will have highly sought-after amenities such as dedicated, on-site parking and an outdoor seating area.
The first two months of rent would be waived in the first year. The daytime operator would pay $1,750 per month in the first year and $2,000 per month in the second year. The rate for the evening operator that would have use of the bar would be $2,000 in the first year and $2,250 in the second year.
In addition to a break on rent, incubator tenants will have access to free advice from experts on tasks such as menu development, pricing and sourcing ingredients, Bond said.
The goal is that incubator tenants would stay three to five years and then be successful enough to move to their own locations in Colfax.
Getting to this stage has involved lots of work behind the scenes.
“This project has been super fun, but one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my professional career,” Bond said. “It’s just been one situation after the other of turning chaos into creativity.”
Originally, the restaurant incubator was going to be housed in an older, multi-story building, also on Main Street.
Then the structural engineers examined the building after it was purchased. “(They) said basically, ‘Pump the brakes,’ ” Bond said. ” ‘You’re going to need another million dollars worth of funding and another eight months worth of timeline that you don’t have.’ “
The problem was if more than half of the building was renovated, the structure would have to be upgraded to meet present seismic requirements. That work would involve peeling off the roof, adding steel braces on the side external walls and putting a new roof on the building.
Rather than quit, Bond and Allie Cofer, the association’s executive assistant, found a solution by sharing their challenge with community members, who offered advice.
They decided to renovate as much as possible of the building the organization had already acquired without triggering the requirements for the seismic upgrade and purchase the single-story former bank for the restaurant incubator.
The Washington Department of Commerce was convinced to continue to back the project despite the pivot, and it moved forward.
The renovation of the older building is already done. The Coco Bee and The Cellar are on the main floor. The association and an apartment fill part of one of the upper stories.
Even before the two building renovations of the Colfax Downtown Association, Colfax’s success in reviving its downtown was getting noticed.
The Colfax Mercantile is one of the ventures highlighted by Becky McCray, a founder of SaveYour.Town in a March presentation in Pullman. McCray was speaking at a gathering of Inland Northwest Partners, a not-for-profit economic development group whose founding investor is Avista Corp.
The Colfax Mercantile debuted as an incubator five years ago after Gregory persuaded Austin Storm to acquire a building constructed in 1893 that was a furniture store before it was vacated for 25 years, Gregory said.
“I’m always telling him, ‘I’m going to make you money,’ ” said Gregory, a retired WSU fundraiser who lives in Steptoe.
Storm and his wife, Laura Storm, own Bully for You, a store next door to the Colfax Mercantile. They also own St. Ignatius Hospital and the Storm Cellar in downtown Moscow.
Gregory’s store, Home Sweet Home Treats, sells retro candy, T-shirts and treats. It was one of the original seven ventures, all of which are still at the Colfax Mercantile, along with two more.
The Storms discounted rents for two years. Since it was an incubator, they were able to secure about $30,000 in economic development money through Whitman County to repair plumbing and pay other expenses.
Community members donated 120 umbrellas that hang overhead at varying heights to disguise how terrible the ceiling looks, Gregory said.
They shifted away from the incubator concept for a number of reasons. All of the tenants like it so much they don’t want to move and it’s still affordable, she said.
Spaces cost anywhere from $50 to $300 per month depending on the size, along with a requirement for each vendor to staff the store three hours per week, she said.
Plus, something else has happened in the last five years that the owners of the Colfax Mercantile didn’t predict.
Part of their original purpose was to fill the vacant storefronts in downtown Colfax, but empty spaces are getting more scarce, Gregory said.
The restaurant incubator, just a short walk away from the Colfax Mercantile, is a next important step, she said.
“It definitely is something we need,” she said.
Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.
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