December at Empyrean Coffee House means the 3rd anniversary of the local music venue and coffee shop under its current ownership.
But this year's end will mark a rebirth of sorts, as Empyrean makes ready to relocate from its 154 S. Madison St. home, nearly a mile east to The Big Dipper building at 171 S. Washington St.
Empyrean is altering its floor plan to add seating in the main music venue during the last month of the year -- when the new fire sprinkler law takes effect on Dec. 1 -- then moving to The Big Dipper during the first week of the new year.
The decision to move Empyrean has as much to do with the looming sprinkler law as it does a rent increase coming at its current location.
Empyrean owner Chrisy Riddle said sprinklers will not be installed at The Big Dipper, but that nearly $4,000 raised from benefit shows and donations to save the Empyrean will be used to make a number of improvements at the new site, including adding seating to the dance floor space that will shrink the maximum occupancy of the building to about 110, which is closer to Empyrean's main music venue space at the Madison Street location.
"It's hard to invest in a building you don't own," Riddle said during a telephone interview. "We would be spending a lot of money to do exactly what we do now, and with the rent going up we knew (installing sprinklers) would be too big of a stretch.
"We definitely want to say goodbye to the (Madison Street building), but more importantly we want to put our energy into this new start with some sort of re-opening celebration. The Big Dipper has special history in Spokane and we're looking forward to revitalizing that space."
For more information, read the full story coming in Friday's entertainment section of The Spokesman-Review.
Kaylee Cole appears in a special Som Show Presents event, which will be the final music show at Empyrean as it is now. The show happens Sunday at 7 p.m. with support from Kevin Long and Henry Nordstrom with Vaughn Wood.
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