Fairgrounds event center plans postponed

Plans to build an event center at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds are on hold as supporters of the proposal wait to see what happens with a Riverstone proposal to build a Coeur d’Alene sports arena.

SRM Development is only in the initial stages of studying whether there is enough of a market in Coeur d’Alene for a 4,000- to 6,000-seat complex, but those backing the fairgrounds event center say it makes sense to put their project aside until the SRM Development study is complete.

“If both were built neither would do well,” said Merlin Berger, president of the North Idaho Fair Foundation Board.

Berger said the two facilities would likely compete for some of the same events, including sporting competitions, tradeshows and other large events.

The arena feasibility study won’t be complete until this fall, said Dave Tomson, development manager for SRM Development. It’s too early to say at this time where such an arena might be located or how it would be funded.

Proponents of a Kootenai County Fairgrounds event center launched a $5 million fundraising campaign last fall to measure support for such a facility. The bulk of the funding for the 80,000-square-foot events center would have come from a $14 million bond issue that had tentatively been planned to be placed before voters this fall.

That isn’t going to happen now, said Chris Holloway, the fairgrounds’ general manager.

In addition to the uncertainty over the Riverstone arena, a fairgrounds event center bond issue would also face other weighty bond issues – including the jail project – on the same ballot if it were put to voters this fall, Berger said.

“With the jail issue it’s just not something the Kootenai County Commissioners are going to do,” Holloway said.

Holloway said that an events center of some kind is something that is definitely needed in the community.

“We talked to a lot of users and people in the tourism business, and there are a lot of events and activities that would come to our area, especially in the shoulder season, but there isn’t a place for those events,” she said.

But it’s unlikely that a sports arena and a fairgrounds event center could both succeed, she added. “The community is only so big, so you can’t have two places competing for the same events.”

Tomson said he has high hopes for the sports arena which he doesn’t see as competing with a fairgrounds event center.

“I really think it could be a huge home run for this area,” he said. “I’m anticipating it could be a significant boost in new dollars to the community.”