A homegrown Coeur dAlene architectural and development firm is doing its share to shape the Lake City skyline.


The company, Miller Stauffer Architects PA, which developed the 14-story McEuen Terrace on Front Avenue earlier this decade, now is developing the 20-story, $50 million Parkside mixed-use tower nearby. The 215-foot-tall building will be about the same height as the 18-story Coeur dAlene Resort, but because its on higher ground, it will be the tallest structure in the downtown skyline, says Monte Miller, founder of and a principal at the company.


Becoming a developer wasnt a stretch for the company, Miller says.


We saw that as a natural evolution of an architecture company, he says. We saw a wisdom in doing for ourselves what we were doing for other clients.


Jonathan Coe, president and general manager of the Coeur dAlene Chamber of Commerce, says Miller Stauffer raised the bar for mixed-use development in Coeur dAlene with McEuen Terrace.


They were the first to take the plunge in creating a project like that and proving it can be done, Coe says.


Its significant that Miller Stauffer was the first to get such a project off the ground and to follow it up with Parkside, he says.


It changed the communitys expectations for future development, he adds. It gave others the courage to go ahead.


Miller and partner Dick Stauffer began buying property that would become the site for Parkside about 15 years ago, but ended up doing McEuen Terrace first.


As they pondered concepts to develop Parkside, Miller Stauffer snatched up other lots that came up for sale on the next block to the east and began to consider ideas for what would become McEuen Terrace.


Miller got a call from a lawyer friend at Paine Hamblen LLP, a Spokane-based law firm with a Coeur dAlene office, who asked if there was new building with at least 10,000 square feet of floor space available and with room to grow in downtown Coeur dAlene. That was bigger than what Miller Stauffer had envisioned at the time for McEuen Terrace.


We decided to increase the scale of the project, he says.


Miller Stauffer bought three more adjoining lots from the Flamingo Motel, and were joined by development partner Shawn McMahon, a real estate agent with Coeur dAlene-based Century 21 Buetler & Associates Inc.


What was intended to get our feet wet as developers grew rather quickly because Paine Hamlen wanted to be downtown in a new building, Miller says.


Another reason the architect-developers wanted to go big with McEuen Terrace was because none of the high-rise designs they drew up for clients for potential Spokane and Coeur dAlene developments had come to fruition.


We decided the only way for us to get one off the ground was to build it, Miller says.


The biggest challenges were analyzing the risk and obtaining financing, he says.


Once McEuen Terrace was designed and we had pre-sales, we couldnt get a loan, he says.


On a suggestion from a union representative, they met with Rich Hardan, of Compass Group, of Spokane. Hardan believed in the project, and Compass Group loaned Miller Stauffer almost $10 million.


It was an awful big risk, Miller says. I cant say we lost sleep, but we were anxious for the project to finish and units to close.


To some extent, that anxiousness is continuing with Parkside. Even with 10 percent nonrefundable deposits, it doesnt mean sales are closed, he says.


Meanwhile, Miller Stauffer designed two other highly visible projects that are now under construction in Coeur dAlene. One is the Towers at Ridgepointe, a $45-million, six-story, 74-unit luxury condominium complex being developed by The Edge Development Group LLC, of Bend Ore., adjacent to the Coeur dAlene Resort Golf Course. The other is a $7.5 million, 24-unit, two-story Ice Plant townhouse project being developed by the Schreiber family, of Coeur dAlene, at 11th Street and Mullan Avenue east of downtown.


The firms portfolio of recent design projects also includes retail centers, gas stations, banks, upscale homes, multifamily housing, and churches.


We dont really specialize in a niche like some firms, Miller says. If we labeled ourselves, we would be primarily a private-sector firm. Having done development personally, we know what it takes.


The firm, however, has designed its share of public projects, including the Post Falls Public Library, the Coeur dAlene City Park Rotary Bandshell, and the North Idaho College Childrens Center, says Stauffer, Millers partner.


Weve got a good catalog of work, Stauffer says. Its almost all referrals.


For instance, Miller Stauffer currently is working on projects valued at $3 million for Spokane Valley-based Horizon Credit Union, including a remodel of its headquarters, a new branch office in Moses Lake, Wash., and some smaller projects. The firm did its first work for Horizon in 1990, when it designed a new branch for the credit union in Sandpoint.


We established a nice working relationship, and they retained us to do more work, Stauffer says.


Miller says the number of projects the firm has going at any given time varies.


Its desirable to have one big project all the time, in addition to a number of smaller projects linked together, he says. Larger projects may take several years to complete, while smaller ones might be designed and constructed all in one year, he says.


Miller was raised in Coeur dAlene and attended North Idaho College there and the University of Idaho, in Moscow.


He began his career as an apprentice for Coeur dAlene architect R.G. Nelson and continued to work for Nelson after he graduated from U of I in 1974.


Thats when I was watching him (Nelson) design the Hagadone Corp. headquarters, Miller says. The four-story building was a challenge because, unlike other office buildings, it stands on pilings over Lake Coeur dAlene.


I was in awe of that project and design, Miller says. That was truly a formative apprenticeship, and he was a true mentor.


Miller also worked for a time for Doug Cranston, another prominent Coeur dAlene architect.


Times were tough for North Idaho architects in the early 80s. With interest rates for construction financing in the double digits, there was nothing going on, he says.


Despite the slow economy, or maybe because of it, Miller says, he started his own firm in 1982.


I got some work and needed some help, he says.


He got to know Stauffer, a fellow U of I alumnus who was working for the city of Coeur dAlene, through local softball and flag football leagues, in which both played.


We ran in similar circles, and I knew he was an architect, Miller says.


Stauffer was raised in Wisconsin. He attended U of I with aspirations of playing quarterback on the football team.


That didnt come together, Stauffer says. The school had a reputation for its architecture program, so I saw it through.


By the time he graduated in 1978, Stauffer was enamored with Coeur dAlene. He worked for a time with Heylman Martin Associates Architects, in Spokane, before landing the Coeur dAlene city post.


Stauffer says Millers wife, Anneliese, who now is an associate architect with the firm, urged Monte Miller to offer him a job in about 1985.


Monte was so busy, and she thought he needed help, Dick Stauffer says.


The two-story, 15,000-square-foot Charlottes Web Building, at Second Street and Indiana Avenue, was the first project Miller and Stauffer worked on together.


Stauffer was made partner, and the firm incorporated under its current name in 1989. It has 10 employees today.


Miller says the firm has annual architectural revenues of between $500,000 and $1 million, and that although revenues fluctuate greatly due to the nature of the business, theyve grown steadily.


The firm currently is located on the third floor of McEuen Terrace, where it moved about five years ago.


Miller Stauffer plans to move into the Parkside tower this fall, where it will occupy 3,500 square feet of space. That will be a homecoming of sorts. Before moving to McEuen Terrace, the office was at the current Parkside construction site.


In 1993, Dick and I, as an investment, bought property on Sixth and Front, and the firm occupied a small office building there, he says. Then, they bought other lots on the block and envisioned developing Parkside as a seven- or eight-story residential and commercial building.


The scope of the Parkside project also grew when NightHawk Radiology Holdings Inc., a Coeur dAlene-based provider of radiology services to physicians, committed to lease 20,000 square feet of office space there.


Miller and Stauffer negotiated for two years to buy the last lot on the block, which was occupied by the Coeur dAlene office of the U.S. Social Security Administration.


The day they left, I drove a font-end loader through the (Social Security) building, Miller says.


Miller Stauffer Properties, the firms development arm, also owns most of a block at Wallace Avenue and Seventh Street, and four lots on Sherman Avenue, all for potential development.


Miller says Coeur dAlene has seen unprecedented growth. Stauffer adds that he expects the growth to continue.


Were contacted by two or three people a week about potential projects, he says. A number of people are developing and building businesses.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at mikem@spokanejournal.com.