420 Building to become Laundromat

NEWPORT – The big metal building known as the 420 Building on the south entrance going into downtown Newport will become a Laundromat, according to Danny Pontius, one of three investors who purchased the building last year.

“We’re still in the permitting stage,” Pontius says, a 2009 graduate of Cusick High School. He says he and his two partners have had quite a bit of discussion with Newport before they bought the building. Pontius, who works as a realtor and in property management, says the plan is to have 20 washers and dryers. He’s hoping for a midsummer opening date. He also plans to have some offices inside. “It’s surprisingly big inside,” he says, about 3,000 square feet.

The Laundromat will not include a dry-cleaning service. As are most Laundromats now, including the one in Priest River, it will be operated on cards, not quarters. People use paper money to charge their cards, which in turn will be used to operate the machines.

Parking is one of the main concerns Pontius says. There is some parking in the lot. He says parking on the street and maybe nearby lots would be used.

There is a need for a Laundromat in Newport. Pontius says many of the homes he sees as a property manager and realtor do not have washers and dryers. The former Laundromat in Newport was located where New Health is now, behind Mi Pueblo restaurant on the city’s north side, was closed in 2019 and torn down to make way for New Health. The closest Laundromat is in Priest River.