POST FALLS, Idaho – It has been close to a year since Thomas Tedder purchased the land where the Post Falls Outlet Mall was. Tedder, owner of Tedder Industries, bought the outlet mall with intentions of using part of it for his business and then leasing out the other parts to retailers.
The old Post Falls Outlet Mall sat nearly empty for more than a decade.
Now, there is a clear symbol that change is on the way. Since Tedder Industries purchased the lot, new shops such as an "escape room" have set up shop on the old outlet mall.
If you have not heard of the phenomena of escape room games, let Alicia Zaas fill you in.
"it's solving the mystery that's in there. There's puzzles and riddles and clues and ciphers and really cool stuff," Zaas said.
As the logo shows too, it is all about the puzzles here. But the business itself is almost a piece of a larger puzzle -- reinventing the Post Falls Outlet Mall.
Last January, the city announced that Tedder Industries, a gun holster company from Hayden, had purchased the land. Almost a year later, the company has mostly moved its operations into the southern building. The north building, now dubbed "Tedder Business Center" already had an Asian gift shop and a women's clothing store there -- that has not changed.
New though is 59:Escape Adventures and three other businesses. A screen printing shop, a costume rental store, and a church.
According to Zaas, a Greek restaurant is on the way too and a comic book shop is rumored to be in the works.
Zaas herself grew up in Post Falls and has seen the growth, and then of course the decline, of the outlet mall. She said she is glad to be part of some change here.
"Community wise, it's growing. People are excited to be out here."
Tedder said he created his company because he is passionate about guns and more importantly how to carry them. He started the company out of his home in Arkansas in 2010. By 2014, he employed around 75 people and the next year 150. By the beginning of 2016, they had 300 employees.
Tedder, who was a software engineer at the time, started making custom holsters from his own home. He then started selling them on Ebay, eventually turning Tedder Industries into a company of 25 people. Tedder and his wife would eventually relocate to North Idaho, a place where it is not hard to find people passionate about firearms.
New businesses here include an escape room, embroidery, church, costume rental store. Others planned, one biz owner tells me. pic.twitter.com/AjgX9Gm2Qn
— Taylor Viydo (@KREMTaylor) December 5, 2016