A prominent Sandpoint family is planning a $31 million, 102-unit condominium development on the last big piece of undeveloped lakefront property inside the North Idaho resort towns city limits.


Construction of the sprawling project, to be called TimberBay, is expected to begin next summer, and be ready for its first residents by the summer of 2004, says Adrian Cox, general manager of TimberBay Development LLC, the projects developer.


TimberBay is one of the biggest construction projects in Sandpoint in the last two decades, says Don Carter, the citys building official.


TimberBay is owned by the Cox family, whose holdings through another company, Sand-Ida Services Inc., include Sandpoints Best Western Edgewater Resort and Quality Inn hotels, and several convenience stores.


TimberBay is to be built on about nine acres of vacant land that the Cox family bought in 1991, Cox says. The property, with 1,800 feet of waterfront, is on the Lake Pend Oreille side of a spit of land that separates the lake from Sand Creek and the eastern edge of downtown Sandpoint. Both the Cox familys Edgewater hotel and Sandpoints City Beach Park are located on that same peninsula, just south of the TimberBay site.


The developments first phase will include 51 condo units in two buildings, a 3,000-square-foot clubhouse, a lakefront pool, and a private marina, Cox says. That phase is expected to cost $15.5 million, he says. Together, a second and third phase of construction will add another 51 units, but the timeline for starting work on those phases will depend on how quickly the condos in the first phase sell, he says. TimberBay Development has not selected a contractor for the project yet.


The residential units will range in size from one bedroom, with 721 square feet of floor space, to three bedrooms, with a little more than 2,000 square feet of space, Cox says. Prices will start at $150,000 and top out at $539,000 for a two-story penthouse, he says.


Each of the three-story residential buildings will include underground parking, he says.


TimberBay Development already has taken reservations for about a third of the units in the condominium projects first phase, Cox says. Among those whove reserved units, the largest number is from the Seattle area, he says.


Thats definitely our primary market, Cox says, adding that TimberBay also will target residents of Spokane and the Tri-Cities in its marketing campaign, which soon will shift into high gear. Other reservations have come from residents of California and Arizona, he says.


Still to be resolved is an issue of public access across the TimberBay site, Cox says.


TimberBay Development has appealed two conditions, both having to do with public access to its property, that the city of Sandpoint imposed last spring when it granted approval for development of the project, says Jeff Jones, Sandpoints planning director. No date has been set for hearings on the appeal in Bonner County District Court, he says.


Cox says development at TimberBay will proceed whether the company prevails in its appeal of the conditions, and even if its required to grant the access desired by the city, the design of the project will change very little.


Also unlikely to impact TimberBay is a proposed extension of U.S. 95 that would be built on the west side of the peninsula where the condo development is planned, Cox says. The proposed route of the Sand Creek Byway sits well behind the western boundary of TimberBay, he says.


TimberBay was designed by Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, of Portland, the same company that designed Skamania Lodge, in Stevenson, Wash., and a major renovation and expansion at Sunriver Lodge, in Sunriver, Ore.


Windermere Real Estate/Resort Lifestyles Inc., of Sandpoint, is marketing the project.


TimberBay joins a growing list of high-end resort projects proposed or under way in the Sandpoint area. Seattle-based Harbor Resorts LLC has developed a $15 million, 50-unit condominium project at Schweitzer Mountain Resort and has proposed an ultra-exclusive housing community there called GreyHawk. Also, Sandpoint developer Dick Villelli has spent $5.5 million refurbishing Hidden Lakes Golf Resort and is selling lots for residential development near the course.