U.S. 95 Has Heavy Traffic - In Real Estate Sales Last Big Parcel Of Highway Property Sells For Undisclosed Amount

One of the last large chunks of commercial property along U.S. Highway 95 in Coeur d’Alene just sold, doubling the size of the CdA Tech Center.

The sale trims an already sparse list of development options along the most sought-after retail corridor in North Idaho.

“It’ll be one of the biggest sales this year,” said Shawn McMahon, a commercial real estate specialist.

McMahon, of The Prudential Acuff Northwest Realty, declined to discuss the purchase price of the 20-acre parcel owned by Hecla Mining Co. The property had been listed at about $2.2 million.

The plugging of this commercial hole at the corner of Wilbur Avenue and Highway 95 is the latest installment in a development story that has been gathering momentum since the early 1990s.

A few years ago, the four-mile stretch of highway connecting Interstate 90 to the northern tip of Coeur d’Alene was a limited collection of commercial projects perched at key intersections, with vacant lots, horse corrals and wooded property filling the spaces between.

From one end to the other, nearly all of those formerly undeveloped sites have since been spoken for.

“I call it the two ‘poles’ of retailing,” said Steve Ridenour, of the Coldwell-Banker Schneidmiller Realty commercial division. “The south pole would be Appleway and the north pole is Prairie Avenue.”

Ridenour is taking part in a 23-acre development called the Cornerstone Business & Professional Park, located on the northwest corner of Prairie and U.S. Highway 95. Roughly half the combination medical park, office space and retail project is full, with build-out expected by the end of 1999, Ridenour said.

“Up and down this corridor, land is being used up,” he added. “This is a pretty prominent intersection, so we’re getting the benefits of all that.”

While Prairie gets about the same amount of north-south traffic as Hayden Avenue to the north, it also acts as a transportation hub for growing residential communities like Dalton and Hayden and acts as an alternate route to and from Spokane.

Laid out like a Monopoly board, the properties along the highway are priced in every category from Boardwalk to Baltic Avenue.

Land close to I-90 is listed for as high as $14 a square foot - or about $610,000 per acre.

Closer to Lancaster Avenue, which the city of Hayden has marked as the northern limit for sewer and water service, property is available for as little as 60 cents a square foot.

Until the high-priced end of the board is saturated, little action is expected on the more affordable squares.

“If you want to cover the Coeur d’Alene area with one store, the closer to I-90 you are, the better,” said Sheldon Jackson, associate broker at SDS Realty in Spokane.

Jackson’s office recently completed the deal on the Quaker State “Q-Lube” outlet opening south of the new Fred Meyer store at Highway 95 and Bosanko Avenue. He has a sale pending on a parcel of more than an acre in the department store parking lot. Another commercial listing, located at Neider Avenue, also is sold, according to Jackson.

Even at $12 to $13.50 per square foot, the sites around Fred Meyer haven’t lingered on the market.

“We deal with national and regional retailers,” Jackson said. “All the people we’ve been talking to say Highway 95 is the spot where they want to be.”

On the west side of the highway, between Hayden and Prairie avenues, Rick Gunther, operations manager at Coldwell-Banker Schneidmiller Realty, has sold about one-third of the 19 lots available in a project named the Davis Center.

“Obviously, the ones getting the most attention are right on the highway,” he said.

The 23,000-square-foot lots sell for between $103,000 and $138,000, with those facing Highway 95 fetching more money.

“Davis Center has always been just outside of development,” Gunther said. “But as development increases around the Silver Lake Mall, the prices there are pushing buyers north.”

In late 1997, Tomlinson Black planted its flag on more than 70 acres of the Hecla-owned Silver Lake Center property on both sides of the highway. It is the third company to represent the commercial land since Hecla first attempted to sell it in a $7.5 million auction less than two years ago.

With the CdA Tech Center expansion and contracts on as many as nine other sites, the Hecla portfolio now stands at about 28 acres, according to Ron Branson and Monte Risvold, who represent the listings for Tomlinson Black. The real estate firm expects 1998 to be a banner year for the Silver Lake Center, where timing and buyer demand seem to favor commercial activity.

“I have a saying,” Branson quipped. “You want to be the first born, the second spouse and the third Realtor.”

Risvold said a ripple effect pushes commercial growth from the most active centers to outlying areas.

“But the farther out you go, the less activity you see,” he said.

And the more accommodating the terms of sale become.

As associate broker for Hope Realty, Keith Hanlon represents a five-acre offering immediately south of the Super 1 Foods store on the corner of Hanley Avenue and Highway 95. His client is prepared to entertain a long-term lease, will build to suit or might take property in trade.

“A franchise restaurant has considered it and I’ve got some motel people I’m talking to,” Hanlon said, adding that tight commercial inventory south of Hayden is pushing the ripple his way.

The circle hasn’t yet widened to take in the 71-acre Reed Center near Lancaster Avenue, or a five-acre parcel at Wyoming Avenue and Highway 95, said Bob Schmand, who represents those properties through North Idaho Realty. But the tire kickers have been showing up where almost no interest was shown before.

“From the growth side of things, that end of town will probably be developed in the next four to five years,” Schmand said. “The interest has increased, but only recently. Now the true investor types are looking at it.”

Within the past several months, commercial growth on the highway has outpaced any prior period. Albertson’s and Rite-Aid moved in to anchor the new Prairie Shopping Center last fall, filling a gap at the northeast corner of Prairie and Highway 95. The Fred Meyer store closed another hole in April and several smaller retail projects popped up at regular intervals.

McMahon last month inked a deal on about six acres south of the Silver Lake Mall, the future home of a Robideaux Motors automotive complex. Earlier this week, he sold a oneacre parcel sandwiched between Tri-State Outfitters and the Silver Lake Motel, which will hold a 12,600-square-foot retail building.

Those sales will close the chapter on highway development from Hanley Avenue south to Dalton.

Home Depot locked up the last major piece of commercial real estate on the intersection of Kathleen Avenue this month. To gain line of sight from the highway, the national retailer will have to bulldoze a strip mall and up to two adjoining residences.

Increasingly, that school of development - expensive as it is compared with building on raw land - will become the norm, according to commercial specialists.

“We’re already seeing it,” Branson said. “And as Highway 95 product disappears, you’ll see more of it.

“If a location is desirable enough, they’ll move something else off of it to make room for their projects.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: U.S. 95’s busiest intersections