SEQUIM — Recession or no, Sequim is to have ravioli, rubber and more car parts come spring.
The Bell Street Bakery, a giant Discount Tire store and a Schucks Auto Parts are all under construction on the west side of the city.
The Discount Tire is the biggest project, at 9,736 square feet and two stories, rising in front of the Costco Wholesale at Ninth Avenue and West Washington Street.
The project, valued at $1.172 million, is at a “temporary standstill,” said Terry Kelly, a senior manager at Baker Construction of Spokane.
That’s not because of the economy, the contractor said. It is because of the onslaught of frigid white stuff that came in mid-December.
“I was under the understanding that you don’t have snow in Sequim,” Kelly joked.
His company broke ground in October and expects to be finished with the Discount Tire outlet in mid-April.
This town is known for its relatively dry and sunny climate, as well as for its large chain stores.
Auto parts, bakery
Another business set to open in April is the Schucks Auto Parts store at 1130 W. Washington St., across from The Home Depot.
The 7,000-square-foot building, valued at $556,602, is also “on hold,” said Melvin Hendrickson of M & C Construction, the Sequim contractor.
The equipment and site have both been blanketed in ice and snow for a couple of weeks.
Last Wednesday, however, Cornerstone Builders crewmen Russ Hapoff and Hector Hernandez continued work on the roof of the Bell Street Bakery retail store even as rain fell on the snow-covered lot at 175 W. Bell St.
The shop is one of two bakery buildings where artisan breads, fresh pastas, croissants, muffins and scones, even croutons and crackers will be available by early March, said co-owner Emily Mills.
Mills, along with chef Doug Seaver and baker Roger Stukey, runs the Cedar Creek Italian restaurant, parent of the Bell Street Bakery.
Stukey already is pulling loaves of focaccia, ciabatta, cranberry-raisin bread and pastry out of the small oven at the back of Cedar Creek’s kitchen.
The restaurant has several outlets for its baked goods, including the Sunny Farms grocery store and cafes around Sequim.
By January’s end, Stukey will move out of Cedar Creek and into the 2,000-square foot bread and pasta factory under construction next door to the Bell Street retail shop.
It will be like going from a shoebox to a walk-in closet, and Stukey is thrilled.
He said he will be making “thousands of ravioli,” plus artisan breads with an emphasis on whole grains.
The factory will open “any day now,” Mills said.
The retail outlet, also about 2,000 square feet, won’t be finished for another couple of months.
It is being built “exhibition style,” Mills said, so customers will be able to see through the shop windows into the bakery itself.
They will have a view of Stukey and his staff milling grain, making pasta and pulling the breads out of the big oven, Mills said.
The Bell Street Bakery will produce pastas and breads with local and regional grain whenever possible, she said.
“We want as much local stuff as we can get our hands on. We’re going to work with Graysmarsh,” the Dungeness farm famous for its berries.
“One thing we will not be doing is doughnuts,” Mills said.
But she hopes to add wedding cakes to the bakery’s repertoire sometime in 2009.
The factory is a remodel of the former Garden Florist building; the $73,000 project converted it from two stories to one.
The retail shop is a $157,308 project.
Mills couldn’t yet say how many people will be employed at the factory and store, though some will come from Cedar Creek’s staff of 18 workers.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
