Developers Seek Aid From Cda For Riverstone Project May Be Scaled Back Without $1.3 Million From Agency

The developers of the Riverstone project along Northwest Boulevard said Tuesday they need public money to help make the project profitable.

Jack Beebe, real estate marketer for the 73-acre Riverstone project now under construction, asked the Coeur d’Alene Urban Renewal Agency for about $1.3 million under the agency’s taxing authority to make the private project work.

“It’s going to be important to the investors here that they come out of this unscathed,” Beebe said. “If we don’t do it right, we should be ashamed of ourselves.”

The former W-I Forest Products mill site is being transformed into businesses and high-end office space and eventually is to include residences along the Spokane River.

“All you have to do is drive down the road and you can see that (developer) John Stone is committed to this project,” Beebe said. “We have a tremendous amount of capital outlay here. We’ve got to make it successful.”

The Urban Renewal Agency took no official vote on the proposal. The agency will study financial information provided by developers and could make a decision in a couple of weeks.

Jim Coleman, Riverstone project engineer, said $1.3 million would pay for a six-lane intersection at Lakewood Drive, moving the Centennial Trail off Northwest Boulevard and open space development.

“That would never happen if not for the Riverstone project,” Coleman said. “There is a substantial dollar commitment put on the table to make this happen. Without the URA funding, this project is a loss.

“If it is not URA-funded, we will have to scale it back to make it profitable,” he said.

Developers are negotiating with Edwards Cinemas to build a theater complex that would be about half the size of the 21-theater complex in Boise, Beebe said.

“It’s still tenuous at best,” he said. “The Edwards family lives here. They said they would be interested in coming here.”

Based on what developers hope to build and sell, the entire project could be worth about $24.5 million by the end of this year.

The Urban Renewal Agency gets tax revenue from any growth in property values from land in the downtown core for the next 12 years.

If the Riverstone project’s value grows to $24.5 million, it would provide about $240,000 in tax revenue - available in 2001 - for the Urban Renewal Agency, Coleman said.

“And that’s just the first year,” he said.

When completed, the project’s taxable property value is expected to be worth about $175 million.

Charlie Nipp, urban renewal chairman, said the agency needs to figure out whether to provide money, how much and how long to pay off the bond used to fund infrastructure.

Beebe said the developers are “encouraging” Idaho Forest Industries to relocate its DeArmond mill, located on Hubbard Street.

He indicated that about 18 acres of that land could go to North Idaho College and a couple of acres to the city of Coeur d’Alene to expand its waste water treatment plant.

“We have not put any pressure on IFI to relocate the mill,” he said. `We hope to bring in some small high-tech companies here. We think it will be a stimulant for other things to happen.

“The bigger goal we have is to keep this project on track.”