City Of Wenatchee Approves Sale Of Old Fire Station
The City of Wenatchee is selling its old fire station at 136 South Chelan Avenue so it can be transformed into a restaurant.
The sale to the Dime Food Group of Seattle was approved by the Wenatchee City Council last week.
The building was listed for sale with an asking price of $719,000 last summer and the City received six offers on the property before accepting the Dime Group's negotiated bid of $520,000.
The City's Executive Services Director Laura Gloria says the discounted price was approved due to the significant amount of renovation the building will need.
"The reason for the price discount is converting it from public use as a fire station to a completely different use requires a lot of different investments in the building. On top of that, the building is old and there's a lot of cost associated with that, including asbestos and led removal, and structural retrofits."
The Dime Group expects to spend $4.5 million of renovations prior to opening its planned "Brigade" restaurant in the spring of 2026.
Gloria says the sale is not expected to officially close until next spring, but once it does the Dime Group will be on the clock to finish its work and get the restaurant open.
"Once it's closed we require them to start construction within twelve months of that date and then to open the restaurant with all of the necessary operational permits within twenty-four months of that date."
Dime Food Group was founded by brothers David and Ian Nichols of Cashmere.