Thursday roundup

It’s been a big day in development news. Here are some items worth checking out:

1. Spokane County appears to have won four parcels of the former Spokane Raceway Park in Airway Heights, bidding $12,500 an acre on more than 300 acres that include the oval race track, for a total price of $3.9 million, Bill Morlin reports. The Kalispel Tribe of Indians won the parcel next to its Northern Quest Casino (which it plans to expand) . Full story here .

2. A 142-slip marina at the Post Falls Landing condo project is expected to open soon, developer Harry Green told the S-R’s Amy Cannata. Thirty-eight of 40 condos in the first two buildings have sold, with commitments for 12 of 20 in the next structure, planned to start once weather improves.

But all’s not rosy at the property, along the Spokane River. The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission still wants a concrete and brick pathway instead of an asphalt path. Read more here .

3. Yet another historic apartment building providing low-income housing may be closed. This time it’s the Martindale Apartments , which provides 51 units at 5313 N. Regal St. Kevin Graman reports its former management company hasn’t paid utility bills. Read more here .

4. Sterling Financial Corp. projects lower earnings because of squirreling away $35 million to $40 million to cover potential loan losses.

Contractors in markets such as Boise, southern California and Bend, Ore., are tapping out their financial reserves because they cannot sell homes built when demand was much stronger than it is today, Gilkey said.

Sterling Chief Financial Officer Dan Byrne said speculators who had expected to make a profit by “flipping” homes in markets where prices had climbed rapidly instead were backing out of the deals. Meanwhile, he said, the contractors kept building to meet artificially inflated demand.

“We have a number of contractor-borrowers that have been carrying a lot of inventory,” Byrne said.

Read more here .