A Developing Story For Cda Economy Riverstone Project Signifies Changes In North Idaho Economy

An undeveloped swath of land along the Spokane River could start sprouting buildings by early summer.

“It looks like raw dirt to many in the audience,” developer John Stone told a crowd of community and business leaders Monday. However, “we hope to have a lot of excitement going on in the next three to five years.”

Stone and a group of investors formed Riverstone LLC last year to buy the 73-acre former W-I Forest Products mill site. Monday’s news conference took place in a field overlooking the mill’s crumbling foundation.

During the next five years, the knapweed and pine trees on the land are to give way to a mix of commercial and residential uses. “We’ve had visions of what could happen here for the last seven years,” Stone said.

The redevelopment is “indicative of the changes in the state’s economy,” said Jonathan Mueller, a planning and design consultant for the Riverstone project.

Mueller worked on the mill’s “green chain” in 1977, when he was a college student. But lumber mills - once prominent features of Coeur d’Alene’s waterfront - gradually have given way to commercial and recreational uses, he said.

The Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course occupies former mill property. So does Harbor Plaza on Northwest Boulevard.

Ground will be broken this summer for the first three buildings in the Riverstone development, said Jack Beebe, a Coldwell Banker-Schneidmiller Realty agent marketing the Riverstone property. He declined to give details of the development’s first tenants.

Bulldozers will start roughing out roads on the site today. An intersection at Lakewood Drive eventually will link the development with Northwest Boulevard.

Houses, condominiums, a marina and upcale commercial developments will line Riverstone’s waterfront, according to a master plan for the site. Office buildings and a commercial district will occupy the upland areas.

The development is designed to blend with downtown Coeur d’Alene, and future landscaping upgrades to Northwest Boulevard, Beebe said.

Broad sidewalks will run through the project, and the pedestrian lighting will be similar to the downtown district’s.

The Centennial Trail will weave through green spaces and residential neighborhoods in the development, connecting it to North Idaho College and the downtown waterfront. Bob Potter, president of the Job Plus, said the Riverstone development will help him recruit corporate clients to the area.

“Obviously, this is one of the most strategic pieces of ground in the county,” said Potter, who helped woo Riverstone to the area.

At present, the city has very limited space in its core for the type of signature developments that corporations want for their headquarters, he said.

Stone said Riverstone could grow in the future, depending on what happens to railroad right-of-ways on the property. Both Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Sante Fe cars cross the property. About 25 acres would be added to the development if the railroads ever vacated that right-of-way.

But that issue is tied to the future of Idaho Forest Industries’ mill on Northwest Boulevard, Beebe said. The mill will need rail service as long as it’s operating, he said. IFI has no plans to move the mill at this point, said Jim English, company president. However, if someone makes the right offer, IFI could consider a move at a later date, English said.

Map of Riverstone site area