Hern Iron Works transforms for new ventures
<p>Eric York drags scraps of steel from a trailer into a dump pile on Wednesday at Hern Iron Works in Coeur d'Alene. York has frequently recycled scrap metal at Hern Iron Works for five years.</p>
<p>Jack Hern and his 8-year-old daughter Ellie operate a material handler to move ground-up tree stumps on Wednesday at Hern Iron Works in Coeur d'Alene. Hern and his business partner Dan Edwards plan to build a strip mall and storage unit facility on Hern's property in the next two years.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE — After 45 years of being tucked in the trees off Atlas Road, Hern Iron Works is being uncovered.
A sign of the times when new growth surrounds old industrial businesses, partner owners Jack Hern and Dan Edwards have taken down the pine trees on 7.5 acres at the southwest corner of Atlas and Hanley and are planning a storage unit business and a strip mall that fronts the site.
"If I'm going to be surrounded by residences with heavy (covenants) that don't allow for boat storage, a mini storage business is the perfect fit," Hern said. "It will also be a nice buffer to the (Coeur d'Alene) industrial park."
Hern said as new housing has surrounded the 35-acre site he acquired from his father, John, the noise, dust and smoke from the foundry on the back portion drew increasing complaints from neighbors.
However, those dissipated when production at the
foundry was shut down last September, another adjustment the owners made due to changing times.
"I'm sure the neighbors are happy to see the smoke gone," said Tami Hern, Jack's wife. "We're not melting metal here anymore. Since metal prices are low, we've decided to put in the storage units.
"It's sad, but it's progress. It's what we need to make the land work for us. We're making the way for progress, but it's still for the community."
The company will continue receiving and paying for scrap metal, but the production side, which includes custom manhole covers in area cities, tree grates on Sherman Avenue in Coeur d'Alene and decorative cannon replicas, has been outsourced to foundries in Spokane and Moses Lake.
The property has been much more than a family business over the years.
It has 35 industrial business and warehouse tenants that have old vehicles and other scrap items dotted outside the buildings throughout the site.
John Hern once landed his private airplane at the site and safety balls for the airstrip are still on nearby powerlines. Jack built forts on the wooded site growing up and later held Boy Scout outings there. It has been the site for many special occasions, including weddings, video sets, senior photos, haunted houses and Dutch oven cooking outings.
"I found an old metal bunk bed on the property the other day," Tami said, adding you never know what you're going to come across. "There's a lot of great memories out here. By the time the kids take driver's ed, they're pros from practicing out here."
But, in order to prepare the site for generations to come, 500 storage units (mostly 10-by-20) are planned to be built as part of Hanley Storage starting this fall. The site will eventually have 2,000 units, which will consume most of the site.
The strip mall will be constructed either next year or in 2018 as part of the second phase of the project. A gas station/convenience store, drive-through eatery and other support businesses are envisioned for the strip mall portion of the site.
Jack said renters at the site have been given a year's notice that no outside storage will be permitted on the property in the future. The direction, he said, is a way to blend the existing uses with the new project.
Eventually, Jack said the existing larger buildings will be replaced by storage units as demand dictates the more-profitable change to smaller, newer units.
"The maxi-storages are performing well so there's no immediate drive to eliminate them," he said.
Always thinking of ways to recycle products, the company is donating wood chips from the downed trees to the Timberline Adventures zip line course east of Coeur d'Alene.
Tami said some of the Ponderosa pine trees will be spared and that a few are more than 150 years old.
"It was hard letting the trees go, but we needed to make the land work for us," she said.
Jack said changes at the site are a way to keep the property in the family and support future generations and the community.
"We're not in it to make a single large sale," he said. "This property created my dad's estate, and we want to pass it on to our families."
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Brian Walker can be reached at bwalker@cdapress.com or @brianCDAPress.