Condos, apartments will sprout downtown soon
Yes, it’s the season to be scared and scary. But it’s not Halloween I’m talking about.
Downtown Coeur d’Alene is the subject. This area is going to change drastically in the next 10 years. And I don’t mean the plans for the second tower of the Coeur d’Alene Resort.
What I do mean are condominiums and apartments. All sizes of these soon will fill downtown and the nearby streets.
Let’s face it. This area is pleasant. It’s walking distance to the lake, parks, downtown restaurants and businesses and North Idaho College. It’s a haven for people headed into retirement.
The scary part of this is what the prices are and will be. Many people won’t be able to afford living here. Even if you think you should jump in right now before it escalates, it’s still pricey.
It is still possible to get in on the ground floor for $300,000 for a one-bedroom condo – and that’s not a pun. I mean the ground floor of the building, where you’ll be downtown but you won’t see anything. For the upper floors you’re talking half a million bucks, at least.
Soon you’ll see condos under construction from near Sanders Beach through downtown and its nearby streets to the far northwest end of Riverstone. Right now two complexes are under way a couple of blocks uphill from Sherman Avenue.
Bettis Construction (also the owner) is working on the second level of the Third Street Apartments in the northwest corner of Third Street and Indiana Avenue. Designed by architect Gerald Anderson, this two-level building will have four apartments (two two-bedroom units at 1,150 square feet each and two one-bedroom units at 950 square feet each) on each floor. They’ll have fireplaces and decks or patios, and the upper units will have open-beam ceilings and views of Tubbs Hill.
They should be complete early next year, said Monty Riswald of Tomlinson–Black. Then construction should begin on the complex’s similar, second building across the parking lot.
A few blocks away, the ground has just been scraped on the Garden Apartments on the half block south of Garden Avenue between First and Second streets. These actually will be condominiums in four buildings owned by David Rucker of San Diego. They’re designed by Patano Architects and are being built by Dodge Construction.
In each building the first level will be a one-bedroom unit and five garages. The second and third floors will contain four two-story townhouses with one having three bedrooms and the others having two bedrooms. All will have decks and Tubbs Hill views.
Rucker will landscape the complex extensively in cooperation with the neighboring Roosevelt Inn bed and breakfast and the apartment building he owns in the southeast corner of the block. The Garden Apartments should be complete early in 2006, according to Dodge Construction.
A few blocks down, in the northeast corner at First Street and Coeur d’Alene Avenue, Realtor Marshall Mend plans a five-story lake-view condo complex. It would have parking on the first level, two two-bedroom units on the second and third floors and single three-bedroom units with large decks on the fourth and fifth floors. He hopes to start construction next year and anticipates selling them from $525,000 to $750,000.
The complex would be across from the entry to the parking garage of the Coeur d’Alene North Condos.
The question remains where all these condo-dwellers are going to shop for groceries. What downtown needs is an upscale food market. Wouldn’t a Trader Joe’s be grand here?
A Rathdrum Star is born
Three issues of The Rathdrum Star have been published and mailed to 6,500 residents in the Rathdrum to Spirit Lake area.
The weekly newspaper has area news, sports and advertisements. Publisher/owner is Tom Burnett, a newsman with 15 years with the Spokesman-Review and four with The Coeur d’Alene Press. He formerly owned the Post Falls Tribune.
Originally from Greeley, Colo., he worked in Billings, Mont., and Salem, Ore., before coming to Spokane in 1968. Burnett, 62, and his wife Sandy live in Rathdrum. He has three employees.
The Star’s offices are in the former Keg Tavern building across from city hall in downtown Rathdrum. Hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Phone 664-7692.