Crown West Realty

Journal of Business

By Kim Crompton

Crown West to expand Lewiston-based company’s building at big industrial park

SPOKANE, WA-Precision Machine & Supply Inc., a fabrication and precision machining company based in Lewiston, Idaho, plans roughly to double its space at a repair center it operates in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park, in Spokane Valley.

Dan Wenstrom, Precision Machine’s owner, was out of the country last week and unavailable for comment, and his son, Dana, who operates the Spokane shop, also couldn’t be reached for comment. Recently, however, the city of Spokane VAlley issued a notice of determination of nonsignificance in connection with a proposed 15,600-square-foot expansion of the 18,500-square-foot building that Precision Machine leases at 15708 E. Marietta, on the south side of the big industrial park.

Dean Stuart, director of marketing at Crown West Realty LLC, which owns and operates the industrial park, says he expects a building permit for the project to be issued by the end of this month, and adds, “We’re ready to go. As soon as the permit is received, we’ll be moving dirt.”

Stuart says the addition will include some office space, but that it will be used largely for production and will about double the Precision Machine’s production space. He declined to say how much the addition is expected to cost, but he expects it to be completed in October. Russell Page Architects of Spokane, designed the project, and Vandervert Construction Inc., also of Spokane, will be the general contractor, he says.

Precision Machine’s web site says the company does various types of fabrication and machining and that its Spokane Valley facility specializes in the repair and rebuilding of compressors, pumps, blowers, and heat exchangers. Along with the work it does in its shop, it goes into the field to do on-site machining when customers require it, the web site states.

“We specialize in improving the productivity of industrial equipment by installing better components or by redesign. We pride ourselves on taking on the unusual task, whether it be in welding of exotic metals, or special application of heat-treated or hand-surfaced replacement parts,” the company says.

Precision Machine has had a satellite operation at the Spokane Business & Industrial Park for at least several decades. In 1990, it doubled its space there to about 20,000 square feet, and about six years ago, it relocated to its current, similar-sized space there.