Nearly 70-year-old Kennewick building being gutted to make way for a popular restaurant
The former home of a Kennewick Subway and most-recently the Fresh Leaf eatery is being gutted this week to make way for another restaurant.
The building built in 1953 on Kennewick Avenue just east of Highway 395 also used to house Tri-Cities Automotive Repair and Harding Glass Company.
Mike Scott, the owner of Bruchi’s CheeseSteaks & Subs, bought the half-acre parcel and building in January for $675,000, according to county records.
He told the Herald he is renovating the building for his new restaurant. It will replace his location just down the street at 2417 Kennewick Ave.
“It has been a good store,” Scott said. “We want to stay in the area. But we will be closer to the highway and intersection, and we’re not leaving existing customers.”
The major motivators for the move are twofold. Scott wanted a bigger dining room and to add a drive-thru.
The current Kennewick location is on a slope and parking can be tight.
Scott said that when he first built on the site, the parking lot was level with the adjacent small strip mall. But the company had to excavate and remove the fill dirt.
“We hauled off 55 dump trucks of asphalt, rock and concrete,” he said. “It lowered the level of the parking lot by five feet.”
Not only will the new location be easier to get to and have a drive-up window, it also will be larger and feature a deck made from reclaimed solid Douglas fir beams from the original building.
The new store at 2617 Kennewick Ave. will be larger and similarly designed to other newly renovated Bruchi’s on Gage Boulevard and on Edison Street.
And he will have 2,000 square feet for a second tenant but he has not reached a deal on that space.
Tri-Cities has six Bruchi’s locations — one in Richland on Jadwin Avenue, one in Pasco off Burden Boulevard and four in Kennewick.
While the Spokane-founded restaurant primarily is found in Eastern Washington, there are a few in California and one near Boise, Idaho.
Scott said the current restaurant is scheduled to be vacated by the end of July so that a new tenant can take over the space Aug. 1.
Fresh Leaf, the former tenant that closed at the end of December, is moving to new location in Richland at 1080 George Washington Way. The restaurant features fruits and vegetables in gourmet salads, wraps, soups and smoothies.
