PORT ANGELES — A landmark downtown building known for three generations of department stores it housed since the 1940s is starting to look like a new place.
Country Aire Natural Foods’ future location is the former Gottschalks building at the corner of First and Oak streets.
Exterior work to the building is nearly finished, said John Miletich, co-owner of the natural food grocery store.
A new roof, which includes eight inches of insulation, was completed Friday.
A crane standing tall behind the building was used to lift materials into place during the reroofing project, and additional equipment helps construction workers install new wall and roof features.
Miletich and his workers spent several days painting and installing a brown and orange crown mold around the exterior roof edge.
Soon a green and orange awning will be added, and windows will be installed to increase the natural light inside, Miletich said.
A new coat of paint has already changed the building’s flat tan exterior to a two-tone brown and tan.
“The main drive is to get it weathered-in,” Miletich said.
Inside, the exposed ceiling beams have been sanded down to bare wood and varnished, and skylights were installed as the new roof was put in.
There is no date for opening the new store yet, Miletich said.
“We can only go as fast as we go,” he said.
After 36 years in its current 3,400-square-foot space above Michael’s Restaurant at 117 E. First Street, the store will expand to 17,000 square feet in the upstairs portion of the cavernous building that has housed Peoples Store and Lamont’s Apparel before Gottschalks, which closed in 2009.
Miletich and his wife, Robyn, bought the location at 200 W. First St. on July 1 for $650,000 because Country Aire had outgrown its current location.
“We’re bursting at the seams,” Robyn Miletich said.
The store is so full, the floorboards are creaking under the weight of shelves and goods.
Demand long ago outstripped the ability of the store to stock what customers want, she said.
When Country Aire opened 34 years ago, the store had four employees, including the owners.
By the time the Miletichs decided to expand, they had eight to 10, she said.
Now the store has 14 employees, many of them part-time trainees for the new store, and there are plans to hire an additional 15 once the expanded store is ready to open, she said.
“It’s the most inconvenient store in downtown Port Angeles,” she said of the old store’s cramped location.
Parking in front of the store is shared with virtually all of the stores on the block, and there is a small city parking lot behind the store, which Robyn said simply isn’t enough for the demand.
“We owe it to our employees and customers to give them their own parking,” she said.
The Miletichs own the building at 117 E. First St., and plan to rent it to another retailer.
“As long as they aren’t competitors,” Robyn said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
