CdA seeks boost for midtown area

Wanted: a developer to build a multistory building in Coeur d’Alene’s midtown neighborhood.

The city’s urban renewal agency is advertising for a partner to build a demonstration project on three lots it owns in the 800 block of Fourth Street.

“We’d like to see a two- or three-story building with apartments on top,” said Tony Berns, executive director of the agency, also known as the Lake City Development Corp. “We’ll see what the business community and the fair market will bring to us.”

The project is sort of a test drive for midtown, an eclectic jumble of consignment shops, tattoo parlors, restaurants, pawn shops and long-established local businesses.

Midtown stretches north from downtown to Interstate 90. A thriving shopping district in the 1950s and 1960s, the area waned with the advent of malls and big box retailers. But midtown’s beginning to experience a revival. Rising rents in Coeur d’Alene’s downtown are attracting shop owners looking for affordable locations.

The urban renewal agency has two goals with a mixed use project, Berns said: A storefront that would create a “live” presence on the street level, and housing to create a permanent customer base for local shops.

“We’re trying to be a catalyst in nature…to stimulate other property owners to think about what they could do,” Berns said.

The agency is trying to encourage new housing units in both midtown and downtown. Midtown, in particular, is strategically located to provide housing for North Idaho College students and staff, Berns said.

The deadline for submitting a proposal to the agency is Aug. 4. Berns said the agency’s board anticipates choosing a proposal to move forward with in September.

Jackson Holmbo sold two of the parcels, including the old Rosebud Tavern site, to the agency this spring for $292,500. The city of Coeur d’Alene deeded the other site to the urban renewal agency several years ago.