Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar will be the first restaurant at Grant Street Pier in downtown Vancouver’s future, $1.3 billion, mixed-use waterfront project, Gramor Development announced Wednesday.
The Spokane-based restaurant company signed a lease with Columbia Waterfront LLC, a private investors’ group led by Gramor Development.
Overlooking a yet-to-be-built cable-suspended pier, the restaurant will open up to a promenade and waterfront park, with outdoor seating providing a vista of the Columbia River. The 8,320-square-foot space on the ground floor will have a riverfront boathouse feel, with modern lines and large sliding doors, according to a press release.
It’s “the perfect first eatery for this location,” Gramor Development President Barry Cain said in the press release. Several restaurants are planned for the 32-acre site, he said.
Twigs has four restaurants in Spokane, plus locations in Kennewick and Union Gap, the Bridgeport Village shopping center in Tigard, Ore., Meridian, Idaho, and Farmington, Utah.
Traditionally, Twigs has opened restaurants near water and in retail developments in malls, Twigs Vice President Trevor Blackwell said in the press release.
“This spot at the Waterfront gives us the opportunity to branch out, and to seize a unique opportunity in an unparalleled urban and south-facing location,” said Blackwell. He estimates the restaurant will open in summer 2017.
This is the second major tenant Gramor has announced for its project. In October, the developer revealed that M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, a nonprofit group that awards millions of dollars in grants annually, plans to move its Vancouver executive headquarters from 703 Broadway to the top two floors of a seven-story building at 305 Columbia Way. The lease for the 18,000-square-foot space begins Sept. 1, 2017.
Based in Tualatin, Ore., Cain’s company is developing The Waterfront Vancouver — a 21-block project on a former industrial site that’s been off limits to the public for a century. The underground utilities, sewers and electrical cabling, street paving, streetlights and curbing are finished, and the extensions of Esther and Grant streets connecting to Columbia Way opened in September.
Cain said that by this summer, five buildings will be under construction — two restaurant buildings, two residential buildings and an office building. In addition, work on a 10-acre riverfront park funded by the city will be in full swing, he said.
According to the development’s master plan, about 250,000 square feet will be dedicated to retail and mixed-use space within the 5 million total developable square feet. Columbia Waterfront LLC acquired the property in 2008, and the Vancouver City Council approved the master plan in October 2009.
