Two new resort projects that together will cost $13.5 million are in the works near Sandpoint, Idaho, on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille.


One of the projects, a 30-room boutique hotel, spa, and conference center, already is under construction at Swans Landing on the south end of Long Bridge, which carries U.S. 95 across the lake near Sandpoint, says Dr. Alex Verhoogen, who, with his wife, Mary Lee, owns the Swans Landing restaurant there. The project, which will be owned by the Verhoogens, is expected to be open by late June.


The other project is expected to include the construction of 48 condominium units on Lake Pend Oreilles Garfield Bay, located about 15 miles southeast of Sandpoint, plus the refurbishment of a nine-hole golf course there. Work on the golf course will start this fall, but plans for the condominium buildings still must be approved by Bonner County, and work on them likely wouldnt get under way until 2003, says the projects developer, Sandpoint resident Dan Heaton.


Swans Landing


To be called Inn at Swans Landing, the boutique hotel and conference center is expected to cost $8.5 million and will include four new buildings, says Verhoogen, who is an orthopedic surgeon in Spokane. The four buildings will include a 23-room lodge that will be attached to the 7-year-old Swans Landing restaurant; two townhouse-style buildings, called the Villas, which will house seven more guest rooms; and a separate building that will house a full-service spa, which will offer massages, facials, and mud treatments.


The main lodge building also will include two conference rooms capable of accommodating 75 people each, and two other meeting rooms that can be opened up to hold a total of 32 people. In addition, the resort will have private dining rooms and a wine cellar where people can have wine-cellar dinners, Verhoogen says.


The hotel complex also will offer a gift shop and floral shop so, Well really be able to do complete weddings, he says.


All of the water-view rooms will feature jetted tubs and gas fireplaces, and the top-floor units will be two-room suites with private decks, he says.


The project was designed by Ted Lehn, a Friday Harbor, Wash., architect, and Bruce Millard, of the Sandpoint-based Studio of Sustainable Design. Wakeley & Key Construction, of nearby Sagle, Idaho, is the contractor.


We think there is a very strong demand for it, Verhoogen says of the upscale project. The people who will be using the Inn at Swans Landing are the same people that Harbor Properties is marketing the mountain to, he says of the Seattle-based owners of Schweitzer Mountain Resort, a ski area and mountain-recreation community just northwest of Sandpoint.


Summer Bay Resort


Heatons project on Garfield Bay includes a nine-hole, par-3 golf course thats been located in the lakeside community for many years, Heaton says.


Heatona Western Washington land developer who moved to Sandpoint two and a half years agowill upgrade that golf course and rename it Summer Bay Nine Golf Course as part of his $5 million Summer Bay Resort project.


The resorts plans call for construction of two, four-story, 24-unit condominium buildings on a plateau near the golf course that overlooks the lake. Heaton also owns about 400 feet of lake frontage downslope from the plateau, where he expects to build a dock and picnic area for use by residents and guests of the project, he says.


Well have a walking path and a golf-cart trail thatll go right down to the water so people can enjoy the beach, he says.


The resort also will include tennis courts, sport courts, and exercise rooms with hot tubs, he says.


Our intent is to get a place where people can come not only for weddings, but for business meetings and retreats, he says.


The condominiums will range in price from $175,000 for two-bedroom, two-bathroom units, to $250,000 for penthouse units.


Heaton expects those units to be purchased by investors who will put them into a rental pool when theyre not occupying them, although, We might get some full-time residents, he says.


Work on the golf-course upgrades will start this fall and will be done only during the off season so play isnt interrupted, he says.


The refurbishment will consist primarily of installing a new irrigation system, restoring and replanting the grass, and rebuilding the greens, he says. The golf-course work is expected to be finished by early 2003, about the same time work is to begin on the condominium buildings, Heaton says.