Cedar St. Bridge to celebrate new ownership with grand reopening

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

Sandpoint’s iconic Cedar Street Bridge will celebrate the next phase in its long local history with a grand reopening and ribbon cutting Saturday, April 27 — marking the official beginning of a  new era under new management.

Joseph Worth purchased the bridge in February and has since brought in Stacey Mueller as the local property manager. Worth is a 48-year-old entrepreneur who lives in the Southlake suburb of Dallas, Texas, with his family and runs a film studio. He got to know Sandpoint through Mueller and has made a number of trips here over the past several years, describing it as “a respite” for his family and “we can’t seem to stay away for long,” he told the Reader in an email.

Inside the Cedar St. Bridge in
Sandpoint. Photo by Ben Olson.

Worth jumped at the opportunity to own the bridge — even after a handful of years during which previous ownership decisions coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic left it in a slump.

“We want to really cause this bridge to have energy up and down and create this experience here — we want to bring in the flavor of Sandpoint in here,” Mueller told the Reader in an interview. 

Shery Meekings has been a tenant on the bridge for 15 years as the owner of Carousel Emporium and Creations, and whose husband Scott owns Creations Toy Store, and said the new ownership has revitalized the community of vendors. She described the new philosophy as, “Heart, friendliness and creativity — and history.”

The grand reopening will be the first opportunity for the new ownership and management to show off the invigorated bridge to the community, starting at 11 a.m. with a ribbon cutting by the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce and followed by an afternoon of events including hot dogs, free caramel apples, face painting, mini-makeovers and hair shimmers, a raffle and a live music open mic with Frytz Mor and Company.

Each vendor will feature their own sales in a “snacks-and-sips” format, and Mueller and Meekings both said the goal will be to re-welcome the community to the space.

“Since taking over the Cedar Street Bridge, we have been able to fill 10 vacancies with Sandpoint entrepreneurs,” Mueller told the City Council at its April 17 meeting, noting that the bridge — which is roughly equivalent to two city blocks in length — now represents about 20 businesses.

“We’ve taken all the ‘no’s’ off the front,” she added, referring to the list of prohibitions put on visitors to the bridge under the previous ownership of Los Angeles-based attorneys Claire and Frank Fox, whose dramatic rent increases forced about a dozen vendors out of their spaces in the summer of 2022.

Among the most controversial actions taken by the Foxes was to put locks on the upstairs bathrooms, requiring visitors to ask for a key from vendors if and when they needed to use the facilities. Seen as emblematic of an unwelcoming approach to managing the bridge, “The very first thing we did when we got the keys was we took the locks off the bathrooms,” Mueller told the Reader, later reiterating to the City Council, “I can’t believe taking the locks off the bathrooms made such a huge impact on our city.”

Ultimately, that gesture was meant to communicate that the new ownership says “‘yes’ to our guests,” Mueller and Meekings both said.

Looking ahead, Worth, Mueller and Meekings all said to expect to see expanded offerings, such as at Creations — including a new LEGO experience — as well as outdoor patio seating and, critically, more food options.

“We would like to see a restaurant or two that perhaps draws the local community in on a daily or weekly basis,” Worth wrote in an email. “The more goods and services our tenants offer that meet the needs of the local community, the more it can be the place where friends and neighbors gather.” 

Beyond that, Mueller said the bridge is on track to resume its position as a destination not just for visitors, but entrepreneurs themselves. For many years, the bridge was seen as a de facto business incubator. Going forward, Mueller said “the bridge is a place to be.”

“This is the greatest thing about being here at the bridge — especially for new businesses: You’re not alone. You don’t have to take on all the ginormous expenses it takes to start a business and you have a family of support and a built-in clientele and a marketing engine with all the tenants here supporting each other,” she said.

And that collaborative spirit extends from the vendors to their new landlord, Worth.

“Being there isn’t a money thing [for Worth],” Mueller said. “It was driven by a lot of the bottom line and making a profit in the past, which I understand — it’s a business transaction — but Joe did not buy this property on a positive note. I mean, he took a chance. He understood what the heartbeat was that we were sharing with him, he wanted to restore that here at the bridge and come alongside these tenants and help them thrive.”