Morin Printing building awash in ideas; Builder hopes to land a plan soon
By Tom Peterson
The Dalles, Ore., Dec. 6, 2024 — Rock climbing, axe throwing, competitive sports video games - Randy Klantchnek has heard pitches for them all.
But the owner of the Morin Printing building at 308 Washington Street said none of the ideas have come to fruition at the downtown 7,000-square foot building in The Dalles.
Klantchnek, who owns and operates building company Pinnacle Concepts LLC, said the plans for all three business ideas have fallen through for various reasons.
“When I originally purchased it, I had someone who wanted to build an Esports arena,” he said, but the pandemic killed the idea.
“Right now I am waiting on the next round of grants with (Columbia Gateway) Urban Renewal to see what comes down the pipe on that side.”
The Dalles City Council is scheduled to decide on whether to expand the Urban Renewal’s spending limits by some $6 million at its regular meeting on Monday, Dec. 9.
Klantchnek said grant money would be used to upgrade the building’s facade.
The building has been empty since Tony and Joyce Morin sold their printing business to Optimist Printers and then sold their building to Klantchnek in June 2019 for $355,000.
The building has approximately 3,000 square feet on the main floor with 16-foot ceilings, a 1,000-square-foot mezzanine and another 3,000 feet on the third floor.
“People have told me that they remember rollerskating up there when they were little kids,” he said.
Klantchnek said market conditions and the prospects for The Dalles commercial property to increase led him to the decision to purchase the building. He said he also watched the Honald building’s restoration with multiple apartments on the second story.
Interior shot of the first floor of the Morin Printing building at 308 Washington Street.
Residential Potential?
Perhaps this project will go the way of the Honald Building at the southeast corner of Federal and Second streets.
The 10,000-square-foot space on the second floor above Lilo’s Hawaiian BBQ was converted to five single-bedroom apartments, three studios and one two-bedroom apartment within the 10,000 square feet by January of 2020.
Guess what?
They all rented.
Travis and Jen Dillard were behind that transformation with a $500,000 investment. Dillard, a self-described real estate entrepreneur, said in 2020 that the advent of nice downtown living will ignite the area.
Klantchnek is remaining flexible and entertaining a lot of ideas while he has received multiple offers to flat out buy the building which he rejected.
He said he could build to suit and rent, or even possibly sell given the right circumstances.
It’s a stout building with two-foot thick walls, he said.
Klantchnek is no new-comer to big projects with older buildings. The 47-year-old recently remodeled the 1906 Paris Fair / IOOF building on Oak Street in Hood River.
Paris Fair building at 315 Oak Street in Hood River.
“I had to jump through a lot of hoops,” he said.
River City Saloon Setting up the Bar next door
The Morin Printing building sits next to the new home of River City Saloon, part of The Farm Stand complex at 301 E. Third Street. Construction on the new music venue is moving along as proprietor Joe Kirkwood is doing the work himself. There is still much to do but Joe said on Friday, Dec. 6, that he intended to get the neighborhood bar open asap.
