Condo Projects May Lead Resurgence In Downtown Coeur D’Alene

Maybe downtown Coeur d’Alene won’t need a multimillion-dollar fix for its short-term resurgence. Maybe it’s already happening.

Several changes are taking place among businesses in prime locations, primarily along Sherman Avenue between Second and Third streets. And some potentially huge moves are more real than pie-in-the-sky recipes offered by hired planners for the downtown area.

The big changes are led by Dakotah Direct moving into the former First Security Bank building across from the Coeur d’Alene Resort front entry. This probably will bring 100 or more employees downtown.

Another dream - to keep the downtown alive year-round by adding hundreds of permanent residents there - may be closer to reality than anticipated even a few weeks ago.

A $19 million, 10-story condominium off the northeast corner of McEuen Field may be the first of at least three high-rises in the downtown area. Park Terrace Associates, a combination of local developers and regional financiers, has proposed the 70-unit project for the city block northeast of City Hall.

A public hearing is scheduled Dec. 9 with developers and the city planning commission for the project’s special use permit. Plans include underground parking; a commons area, meeting rooms, exercise area and convenience store on the main level. Seven floors would have 10 condominiums each. The top floor would have four luxury penthouses with greenhouses.

Other high-rise projects proposed earlier are the Lakeview Condominiums, where the Mudge Apartments are now located at First and Lakeside, and the “Wilma” partial block on the east side of Second between Sherman and Lakeside.

The $9 million Lakeview project, currently in limbo, would have up to nine levels with commercial spaces on the lower levels, about 30 residential condominiums in the levels above and three levels of parking below.

This project, which has been on hold, still may be built in the next few years, according to Realtor John Beutler.

The Second Street project would replace the former Wilma Theater on Sherman and the Neff Mall on Lakeside. Coeur d’Alene Mines, which owns the property, earlier discussed a high-rise building with commercial spaces below and condo spaces above.

One downtown answer to the North Idaho bagle boom will be Bagels On Broadway, which will occupy two buildings.

The restaurant will open in mid-December at 213 Sherman in what most recently was a short-lived McDonald’s eatery. Ironically, the 2,500-square-foot place started as a bakery at the turn of the century and became a J.C. Penney store in 1916.

The business features all products - 21 flavors of New York-style bagels and 15 cream cheeses - made completely from scratch at the store. Other choices will include home-made soups, sandwiches, salads, desserts, lattes, Cravens’ coffees, soft drinks and juices.

Table seating for 50 customers will be in a “cozy, meeting-place atmosphere,” according to Manager Sean Thompson. Thompson came from Missoula, where his mother, Sue Thompson, has owned the original Bagels on Broadway for four years.

The Thompsons also purchased the old Food Bank building at 211 Coeur d’Alene Ave. They’ll use this 5,000-square-foot facility for wholesale bagel production to supply grocery stores in North Idaho and Spokane. They plan to employ about 30 people between the two locations.

They will offer free samples of their products during the Thanksgiving Weekend Parade next Friday.

A few steps away, at 207-1/2 Sherman, anything related to rubber stamps is offered at Northwest Business Stamps, Home of the Rubber Addicts.

Opening earlier this month, the store sells a variety of in-stock rubber stamp designs and lettering, with any custom stamps made by lasers at the firm’s home shop in Spokane.

The inventory includes all possible accessories - a multitude of paper products, artwork, pads and inking devices, embossing pens, name badges, desk plates and Christmas ornaments.

Owners are Blake and Carrie Carlson of Spokane. Coeur d’Alene employees are Alohae Walton and Carol Johnson. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Phone Rubber Addicts at 769-7354.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Nils Rosdahl The Spokesman-Review