Developers Love Liberty Lake Area

Three years after developers announced plans for the land west of Liberty Lake along Interstate 90, this area is hot, hot, hot.

“It’s easily the hottest area in the county right now,” said Jim Quigley of Kiemle and Hagood Co.

Quigley and his brother, Tom, are marketing land in the 235-acre Liberty Lake Corporate Park between Interstate 90 and Country Vista Drive.

“In 10 years, I don’t think that you’ll recognize - from a development standpoint - the area around the Liberty Lake interchange,” he said.

Developers recently began leveling land and building internal roads for two sites, said Bill Rademaker, president of Liberty Lake Land Co., which is developing the corporate park.

Rademaker said they are negotiating with at least three companies for space in the park. He declined to name the prospects but said two companies have signed purchase agreements and their plans should be announced within the next month. Construction on the two sites will begin late this fall or by early spring, he said.

Rademaker said they are hoping to attract high-tech and light-industrial businesses and office buildings to the park.

“Liberty Lake has kind of taken on a bedroom-type community with a high-tech flavor,” Rademaker said. “It is its own market within the bigger market.”

Dick Vandervert, owner of Vandervert Construction, owns 16 acres nearby along the west side of Liberty Lake Road where he is building Liberty Lake Plaza, a retail development anchored by a new Safeway supermarket.

The grocery store and nine other tenants in the plaza should begin opening in August, Vandervert said.

Tenants include Hollywood Video, Quizno’s Classic Subs, Mother’s Cupboard Nutrition, Domino’s Pizza, Z-com Wireless, Hallmark, Chocolate Kisses, Jiffy Dry Cleaners and Super Cuts.

Vandervert also sold land north of the Liberty Lake Plaza and south of Interstate 90 to KVC Development, which plans to break ground this summer on a 100-room Marriott Hotel.

Besides marketing land for the Liberty Lake Land Co., Jim and Tom Quigley also bought land north of the Burger King on Liberty Lake Drive. Tom Quigley said they have talked to several businesses, including two sit-down restaurants that are interested in the land. He declined to name the prospects until they reach a deal with a company.

“We’ve had a tremendous amount of interest in the area,” Quigley said.

The new retail developments are filling in an area in Liberty Lake that has already seen a new tire store, veterinarian’s office, banks, fast-food restaurants and gas stations open in just the last few years.

In addition to the new retail and industrial growth, Jireh Development of Post Falls plans to build 640 new mid- to high-priced homes on about 580 acres south of Country Vista Road over the next 10 years.

Construction on the first phase of the Highlands at Liberty Lake is planned to begin in the spring of 2001, said project engineer Dale Smith, of Jireh Development.

Smith said development was stalled while owners worked with the Department of Ecology on restrictions associated with the old Greenacres Landfill site.

Spokane County covered the landfill with a $4-million protective cap last year.

The first phase of the Highlands at Liberty Lake will have 55 homes.