CdA district back in gear

COEUR d’ALENE — Once, Fourth Street was the place to buy a new car, a glitzy auto row sporting the latest in Chevy sedans and Ford SUVs.

Then, it became a strip of vacant lots and budding knapweed, abandoned by car dealers for higher visibility locations on I-90 and U.S. Highway 95.

After several years of decay, Fourth Street’s fortunes are rising. The blank spots left by the dealerships are starting to fill in with used-car lots and a variety of other small businesses.

“I was worried about three to four years ago,” said Steve Shultz, who’s operated Bicycle Sales and Service in the neighborhood for 10 years. “The dealerships were moving out; the weeds would collect and grow. But it’s coming back again, no question about it.”

Shultz’s business has doubled since last year, when he moved the bike shop from the middle of Locust Street to a more visible corner spot on Fourth.

A kayak shop moved into the 600 square feet Schultz vacated. It’s one of a series of moves in the neighborhood.

Across Fourth, a used-car business opened in part of the old Chrysler dealership. Even the long-vacant Lake City Ford location is getting a new look. The Coeur d’Alene School District plans to move its maintenance shop there.

The same attributes that brought car dealers to Fourth Street nearly 30 years ago are behind the new wave of investment, Realtors say. Land is relatively cheap. Parking is ample. For retail and service businesses, the exposure is also good.

“Price has a lot to do with it,” said Patrick Hall, a partner in GMAC Real Estate who’s sold several properties on Fourth. “There’s good value in those buildings.”

New commercial buildings cost about $120 to $135 per square foot to construct, Hall said. In comparison, a 22,000-square foot dealership once owned by Beaudry Motors on Fourth Street sold for less than $1 million — about one-third of the cost of new construction, he said.

Mike Fowle purchased the former Knudtsen Chevrolet after the dealership moved to Post Falls two years ago. Fowle looked at commercial buildings throughout Kootenai County before investing on Fourth Street. “It’s a good location, and it’s getting better,” he said.

More than 12,000 vehicles head north each day on Fourth, a one-way arterial between Coeur d’Alene’s downtown and I-90. That’s great drive-by publicity for Coffeeville, the hub of Fowle’s $1 million remodeling project.

Fowle rebuilt the dealership into a commercial center that includes a hair salon, auto detailing and an auto body shop. He’s trying to attract a brake or muffler shop to the one remaining vacant space.

Coffeeville’s décor plays up Fourth Street’s auto row past. Customers slip lattes and use wireless Internet access in the “Ford,” “Chevy” and “Chrysler” booths. Car emblems dot the walls.

The coffeehouse was strategic to Fowle’s plans. He wanted to create a neighborhood hangout, so people would drop by and discover the other business in the building. The concept seems to be working. A restored motorcycle on display at Coffeeville recently led to a job for the auto body shop. The hair salon also generates business leads.

“We work together as a group. There’s lots of networking,” said Matt Jackson, co-owner of Kootenai County Customs, the auto body shop.

Across the street, Preferred Technologies has nothing to do with automobiles. Company President Karl Severson just hasn’t gotten around to taking down the “Subaru” signs from the former Coeur d’Alene Subaru dealership he bought last year.

“We considered building, but this was available,” he said.

Preferred Technologies buys and sells communication equipment, and the site’s proximity to I-90 sold Severson on the dealership. The company’s customers are national and international, so the business ships lots of equipment, Severson said. His employees also like neighborhoods’ proximity to grocery and hardware stores for running errands. “It has easy access to lots of things,” he said.

Clair Sheldon moved Bud’s Auto Sales to Fourth Street two months ago, renting out part of the old Chrysler dealership. He shares the space with the Animal Shelter, and the neighborhood with several other used car dealerships.

Sheldon would like to see the area regain its auto row reputation – this time for used cars.

“We work together, the competition is friendly,” Sheldon said. “Fourth Street was really dead for a while, but it’s coming back.”

Drive-by traffic will only increase as Highway 95 gets more congested, Sheldon predicted. Drivers already use Fourth as an alternate route.

But traffic counts aren’t likely to increase to the point of attracting national chains, said Joe Hamilton. And that’s part of Fourth Street’s charm for Hamilton, who owns Pilgrim’s Natural Foods on Fourth, and the Market Café restaurant across the street.

The year-old restaurant is busy, but clientele dining on health-conscious cuisine is mostly local. Few summer tourists venture that far north from downtown.

“This is the Division or the Sprague of Spokane,” Hamilton said. “Everything on this street is locally owned. You aren’t going to see some big corporate restaurant going in.”