Grass-Roots Campaign Spares Coeur D’Alene’s Historic Catalpa Tree
Five words on a voice mail message last week were welcome news to many people in the Coeur d’Alene area.
“The tree will be saved.”
The tree, for those who didn’t read this column last week, is the turn-of-the-century catalpa tree in the acre between the Kmart driveways off Neider Avenue.
Salvageable for its picturesque beauty, uniqueness to this region and historical significance, the gnarly catalpa was going to be axed by Boston Market, which plans to build a restaurant on the site.
However, several citizens rallied to save the tree and besieged the company’s Bellevue headquarters with faxes, letters and phone calls. The campaign was successful.
“In the first place it wasn’t going to be saved,” admitted spokeswoman Chris Dickinson, “but we pulled several people, including a landscape designer, into the process and redesigned the facility to keep the tree.”
Evidently because of a lack of space, the planned outdoor eating area will be eliminated rather than centered around the tree. Some limbs will be removed to make room for the restaurant’s drive-through lane.
The restaurant is scheduled to open Dec. 23.
Edward Buchler, of Radix Systems in Bayview, offered his support for the tree.
“Many of us here look at it often, smile for a moment and wonder what it could tell us and wish it well,” Buchler wrote the Boston Market folks. He encouraged the company to capitalize on the tree, use it as a centerpiece and logo and add a plaque to explain its significance. “I’m sure customers will make the effort well worth it,” he wrote.
Dickinson responded: “We’re trying to be very good corporate citizens. We’re expecting good results from Coeur d’Alene.”
Boston Market restaurants are known for providing tasty and fast “comfort foods of the past for people on the go.” Included are chicken, meatloaf, ham and turkey dinners and sandwiches, pasta, fresh vegetables and mashed potatoes. The store will employ 50-60 people.
Oh, the catalpa won’t be lonesome much longer. Boston Market plans to plant 17 linden trees and 180 shrubs.
Plans also are intact for another centuryold Coeur d’Alene entity. A new marketing scheme for the three-story Antler Building at 417 Sherman Ave. includes a $1 million remodeling job.
It all depends on finding tenants or new owners, the job of Jim Loedding of Loedding Consulting. The plan, by architect Gordon Longwell, includes a completely renovated interior, accurate restoration of the historic exterior, an addition to 18,000 square feet to the second and third floors, and a new elevator.
Although the main floor has been the home to a variety of businesses through the century, most recently Interstate Typewriter, the upper floors have always housed the Antler Hotel and Antler Apartments.
In his efforts to improve the building after a fire in the late 1980s, Loedding successfully appealed a city ruling that a building remodeled for a change of use must pay a fee of lieu of not providing additional parking.
“The key is to encourage people to remodel and develop in the downtown area,” Loedding explained.
The building is owned by George Christensen and Joe Mastrantonio of Honolulu, and John McLeod of Coeur d’Alene. For information, contact Loedding at 762-2615.
Legends Park will be the name of a 44-unit assisted living facility under construction at 1820 Golf Course Road, just west of the Ramsey Road fire station in Coeur d’Alene.
The 32,000-square-foot, two-story building will include full apartments of various sizes, common and private dining areas, a lounge, activity room, barber and beauty shop and park-like landscaping. Pets will be allowed.
Manager Vicki Shafer, a Coeur d’Alene native, said the facility will employ about 15 people when it opens in midwinter.
Amenities include nursing services and restaurant-style dining with three entrees per meal.
“Our philosophy is to allow residents choices and to encourage participation by families in determining the care process,” said Mary Dever, senior manager in Spokane.
Legends’ parent company is Prestige Care, a Portland-based business with 23 facilities in Washington and Oregon. The 10-acre Coeur d’Alene center is the company’s first in Idaho.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Nils Rosdahl The Spokesman-Review