Downtown Library Included In Tower Plan Developer Says Tax Revenue Offers Low-Cost Option

A tower that houses retail businesses, a bank and residences could generate enough tax revenue to pay for most of a new library building and parking garage, developers say.

That wouldn’t include the costs of finishing the inside of the library. Still, it’s a low-cost way to bring a library downtown, say library supporters and officials from Greenstone-Kootenai Corp.

Greenstone-Kootenai will brief the city’s Urban Renewal Agency on Friday about its desire to develop the old Wilma Theatre site at the corner of 2nd Street and Sherman Avenue. Greenstone-Kootenai is developer of the largest residential development in town - Coeur d’Alene Place.

The new building would stand between four and 11 stories tall.

This new project, strictly a concept at this point, also would include a parking garage on Lakeside Avenue between 2nd and 3rd streets, said Jim Frank, president of Greenstone-Kootenai. Washington Trust Bank, located where the proposed parking garage would go, would move to the new building at 2nd and Sherman.

A new Coeur d’Alene library could occupy the bottom two floors of the parking garage. The garage itself would need to house between 100 and 200 parking spaces.

The library isn’t critical for the project, but the parking garage is because downtown parking is so tight, Frank said.

Greenstone-Kootenai has options on all of the land, and wants the Urban Renewal Agency to think about using tax increment financing to build the parking garage. Under an urban renewal plan passed by the City Council in December, tax revenue from any increase in property values in downtown Coeur d’Alene can be used to pay for infrastructure improvements in certain areas.

“There would be enough tax increment financing generated by the structure we would build to almost pay for a shell for the library and the parking garage,” Frank said.

Frank is optimistic, but cautions that the project is complicated by the number of people who have to agree to every part. “Anybody could say, at any point in time, this doesn’t work for me,” Frank said.

The Urban Renewal Agency won’t take any action Friday, but a decision needs to be made in 60 days, Frank said. If all of the other pieces fall into place, his company would like to break ground in six months.

The Coeur d’Alene Library Foundation would prefer a free-standing building downtown. But the lower price tag of sharing the parking garage is pretty enticing, said Foundation President Jon Hippler.

The foundation would have to raise the money to finish the interior and estimates it might be able to transform 30,000 square feet for about $1.8 million. “It’s exciting, it’s needed, we’re ready,” Hippler said.

But the Library Board and the City Council ultimately will have to approve the location.

City Councilwoman Nancy Sue Wallace is a fan. “This brings the library downtown and it doesn’t put it in the McEuen area,” Wallace said.

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