Trustee’s sale is set for Post Falls project
Housing, retail development is in foreclosure phase
Parcels within Post Falls Landing, a project billed for years as a downtown-style community, are being sold at a trustee’s sale this December.
The development, which includes a 142-slip marina and dozens of condos, is still largely unfinished. It sits on 33 acres just upstream from Post Falls Dam on the old 33-acre Louisiana Pacific sawmill site.
Legal notices published over the weekend outline the trustee’s sale.
Attorney Jonathon Hallin, acting as trustee, said Monday afternoon that the sale is scheduled for Dec. 19 at the Kootenai County Courthouse.
Project developer Harry Green paid $1.7 million 10 years ago for the property and envisioned building a town center that Post Falls could consider its downtown core with retail shops, recreation and housing.
Green declined to discuss the fate of his project Monday.
Hallin said the development was in the foreclosure phase. Liberty Bankers Life Insurance Co. claims it is owed $8.2 million. It is unknown if the trustee’s sale of nine parcels includes the entire Post Falls Landing property.
Hallin said the properties will be sold at public auction to the highest cash bidder.
The project had overcome several hurdles during the past decade. Avista Utilities initially objected to the plans, which are just upstream from its dam on the Spokane River. The company later dropped its opposition.
The troubled development is the latest in a string of ambitious North Idaho projects that were foiled when the economy collapsed in the fall of 2008.
It is considered “vital to the success” of Post Falls’ City Center plan and viewed as a catalyst that will influence future development, according to the Post Falls Urban Renewal Agency.
The agency has reimbursed the Post Falls Landing development about $1.4 million for infrastructure improvements.
Green’s experience in development had been centered on retirement communities. He is credited with converting Holy Names Academy into luxury apartments for seniors; turning Park Place, the former tuberculosis treatment campus in Spokane Valley, into a retirement home; and for building Clare House.