Big things are happening in the small city of Colfax. The charming community is tucked in a valley along the South Fork of the Palouse River and surrounded by the wheat fields of Whitman County. Founded as a lumber town in 1870, many of the buildings along the mile-long stretch of Main Street are nearly as old as the city itself.
The business core has faced its share of challenges, especially after the street was expanded to accommodate a high volume of traffic, which now sees approximately 10,000 cars every day. Colfax is, for many drivers, the beginning of the end of the trip to Pullman and Washington State University, where highway speeds slow to 25 miles an hour. For too many years, people have driven straight through the little valley, where the rolling hills of the Palouse start to yield to mountains.
The Colfax Downtown Association is working to get people to stop, support local businesses, and appreciate what the community has to offer, while meeting local needs.
Executive Director Whitney Bond joined the organization the month before the world shut down in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The time during the pandemic allowed her and her board to take the organization back to its roots and structure real change for the future.
For the past two years, the CDA has embarked on its biggest challenge yet: Purchasing and renovating two buildings, and the subsequent creation of a business incubator. It was designed to help entrepreneurs develop their business ideas with lower overhead costs and a support system to help them succeed from the start.
The CDA applied for and was awarded a nearly $2.3 million grant from the Small Business Innovation Fund from the Washington State Department of Commerce in November 2022 to support the incubator project.
Commerce’s SBIF supports community-based programs and services that meet the needs of BIPOC entrepreneurs, women-owned small businesses, and businesses in underserved, low-income and rural parts of the state.
“Commerce is honored to have funded the Colfax Downtown Association’s project, and we’re excited to see the number of businesses that will open in the coming years,” said Linda Womack, managing director of Commerce’s Small Business Finance and Community Support unit. “Food establishments and related industries were disproportionately impacted during the pandemic. We’re focused on funding projects that increase the ability of small businesses to pivot, succeed, and thrive.
According to Whitney, the incubator project has been rewarding, but not without obstacles along the way. “Our motto with this project is ‘Turn chaos into creativity,’” she said.
After receiving the funding, the downtown association began hiring contractors and planning renovations of the three-story building at 203 N. Main, where they hoped to house restaurants and retail space. But they hit roadblocks, including required seismic upgrades to the building.
When they realized they’d need extra time and an additional $1 million to make it happen, the project pivoted, and Commerce approved the grant funding to purchase a second building, a former bank building.
Whitney and Allie Cofer, the CDA’s executive assistant, were actively involved with the renovation – hanging drywall, laying flooring and building furniture, while promoting the project and bringing businesses into the incubator.
The Cellar and The Coco Bee joined the business incubator in fall 2023, occupying the ground level of the original building and separated by a set of French doors. Wild Ember Kitchen was selected to join the restaurant incubator and recently opened one block south at 102 N. Main. The three unique businesses collaborate and support each other, while focusing on their own success stories.
The Cellar
Being a part of the incubator program is a full circle moment for Kim DeHart. The Colfax Downtown Association was created in 2006 with her at the helm. Now she’s growing her own business, The Cellar.
The Cellar transports guests into a welcoming environment where you’re guaranteed to become friends with a local while enjoying a glass from regional wineries and vineyards around the world.
Kim shared space in a friend’s art gallery for four years before outgrowing it. With limited business housing in town, she said she feels lucky to have been selected to join the incubator with supportive landlords and a remodeled space perfect for her needs.
Opening a wine bar in a rural community was a bit of a risk, but since moving into her own storefront, she’s seen increased interest and her revenue has quadrupled. Without the usual concern of overhead costs thanks to the incubator support, Kim has been able to hire staff and expand faster than expected.
The Cellar hosts trivia nights, and beer and wine tastings. She’s even rented the space for private events, including a small wedding and bridal and baby showers.
People have embraced The Cellar – so much that Kim is currently working on second floor renovations for an exclusive wine club where members can enjoy their wine in a private space.
“I think it boosts Main Street Colfax. That’s the main goal to obviously bring people into town,” Kim said. “But I don’t think it’s just about bringing people into town. I think it’s making an offer to the people who already live here, so they don’t have to go out of town to do things.”
The importance of the incubator program and having state funding available to small communities is not lost on her.
“I would say people come through this town and don’t see what’s here. The more the public knows that Colfax is redeveloping itself, thanks to the incubator, the more support for incubators will happen.”
The Coco Bee
Kylie Pietila poured her first candle in her mother-in-law’s kitchen more than five years ago. Her small-batch beeswax candles and skin care products are available on retail shelves in all 50 U.S. states and around the world.
The Coco Bee started partially out of a personal need. It’s turned into a thriving small business due to the popularity of Kylie’s custom scents and the organic, single-sourced ingredients she buys from nearby Pacific Northwest farmers.
Kylie considers her retail store a one-stop shop for nontoxic household products and self-care items. In addition to her creations, she has an inventory of all-natural products from other small businesses that complement The Coco Bee’s values.
“My goal is to be a place where people can actually come touch and smell and learn about the product and bring their allergen concerns or sensitivities,” Kylie said. “We can point them in the right direction or have products that would actually help them.
Customers drive hours to visit the storefront in Colfax, not just to purchase, but for the experience. Kylie opens the space for candle making classes and private events, where attendees can create their own scents and products, and enjoy wine and food from The Cellar next door.
“It really has become a little bit of everything,” she said. “I just wanted it to be a place where people can come in and they can take a deep breath. They can shop. They can look. It’s more than just picking out a gift online.”
Kylie’s first storefront opened on Main Street in 2022, but she quickly outgrew the space. Since joining the incubator program last year, the larger corner storefront and program’s success has contributed to tremendous growth, including additional wholesale opportunities.
She credits much of the incubator’s success to Whitney and Allie. Their passion and ideas for Colfax brought attention to what’s possible when small businesses have the support and resources to help them thrive.
The Coco Bee is giving back. Kylie uses the tip feature on the store point-of-sale to collect funds to sponsor local needs, including Little League teams, local toy drives, supplies for relief packages, and after-school activities.
“It’s made us a part of the community because I feel like we’re trying to give back as much as this community has helped us grow and become what we are today,” she said.
It’s hard for Kylie to comprehend being a global, family-run company from a small town where every product is physically made and packaged by her.
“We’re doing as much ourselves as we can. I love it so much that sometimes I just don’t think about that because I want to keep doing what we do, no matter how big it gets. No matter where we go. But it’s really cool to know that a candle I poured two weeks ago is being shipped to France for someone to put on their shelf to sell.”
Wild Ember Kitchen
Trevor Miller’s return to Colfax with his family after 15 years away didn’t exactly go as planned. Instead of the wood-fired food truck he’d envisioned, he got a full restaurant thanks to the incubator project – a rare opportunity without significant personal investment.
Wild Ember opened to an enthusiastic community in August, serving New American bar fare and housing the only full cocktail bar and outdoor patio in town. Dining options in Colfax are limited, and the response to Wild Ember’s opening was better than Trevor ever expected.
“It is food they haven’t had here in a while without having to drive to Pullman. It’s good, but it tastes ever so much better when you don’t have to drive 20 minutes to get it,” he said.
Trevor is bringing his culinary experience from across the world – Portland restaurants, resorts and even Australia –to Wild Ember’s tables. His background in fine dining allows him to elevate the skills of his cooks and serving staff, teaching them a higher standard right in town instead of leaving the area to learn in a larger city.
Trevor grew up on a farm outside Colfax, and many of the people enjoying his menu are the people who knew him growing up. He’s focused on supporting farmers, which means incorporating local wheat and produce and a custom Wagyu beef patty from Palouse River Beef for the dinner burger.
“Instead of bringing something in from a couple states away, why not figure out how we can give back to the community, and make home taste better?” he said.
Wild Ember is attracting large groups to the community space, including the private dining room – which was once the former bank’s vault. Whitney and Allie’s daughters, seniors at Colfax High School, and their classmates celebrated Homecoming at the restaurant, which was the first time they didn’t have to travel 20 minutes to Pullman or an hour to Spokane to celebrate.
The outdoor patio, complete with crimson and gray Washington State University flags, was a priority for Whitney during renovations, and is an especially popular addition to Main Street.
“It makes my heart so happy every time I drive by and see people and their families sitting out there,” she said. “People are super excited because we didn’t have anything like that for so long. People have trained themselves that we have to go outside of town to get what we need, and we’re reversing that perspective.”
Trevor hopes Wild Ember will eventually be open seven days a week, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, and maybe even wood-fired catering within the next year. He still hopes to have a food truck, but knows this change of plans has been good for the town.
“I have roots here, so it’s less about the money you could make and just providing what Colfax needed.”
Incubator’s impact
The incubator program’s success is having a domino effect on the rest of Main Street. The CDA is focused on economic development and beautification projects, including adding color with flowerpots along Main Street and incentivizing businesses to complete property upgrades. They’ve invested roughly $200,000 in a Rural Regeneration Project, providing storefront façade grants to 13 property and business owners for anything from adding sidewalk attractions to a complete makeover of their entire structure.
“If someone doesn’t come in and take care of these buildings, what is our Main Street going to look like in 10 years? I think about that a lot,” said Whitney. “We’re just pouring love into them and making sure that our businesses and property owners have the resources they need to keep them standing and intact. We’re building off of what already exists and highlighting the history of Colfax.”
The Colfax Downtown Association has more plans for the buildings in the future. There is a lack of vacancies for businesses, so they plan to finish renovations on the third floor above The Cellar, The Coco Bee, and the downtown association’s office to add more business office space. Other buildings also have vacant or underutilized upper floors that could provide opportunities for businesses or be converted to apartments.
Despite the occasional setbacks and change in plans, the general consensus about the incubator project is that it has been a huge success. The Colfax Downtown Association and its three participating businesses are an example of how well it works for everyone involved – from the community impact, business growth, and job creation to breathing new life into the buildings.
Whitney said she would love to see more opportunities for incubators, including in large cities to lower operational overhead to allow businesses a better chance of success.
“If we’re a two-man team and we can pull this off, it’s proof a small group of people can make a huge difference in their own communities.”
As a lifelong Colfax resident, Allie is equally invested in the success of the town’s ongoing rejuvenation.
“We’re not dying. We’re still here and we’re working hard to stay here because this is important, especially with the wheat farmers around us,” she said. “This is just as important as big cities. We’re fighting to stay alive, and we’re doing a really good job doing it. The incubator is just a piece of that.”