Health care, advanced manufacturing, and real estate are expected to remain steady growth industries in Kootenai County through 2016, sources there say.

Sam Wolkenhauer, Post Falls-based regional labor economist for the Idaho Department of Labor, says the employment growth is estimated at 1.8 percent to 2.6 percent in 2016, although he expects the unemployment rate to remain between 4 and 5 percent next year. The unemployment rate in Kootenai County was 4.8 percent in November.

Most employment growth will be through new hires entering the workforce, Wolkenhauer predicts.

The advanced manufacturing segment is showing robust employment growth. “We have a strong aerospace sector,” he says.

Health care is another growing employment sector, Wolkenhauer says, adding, “We have a large retirement population that generally demands more health care services.”

Steve Wilson, president and CEO of the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce, says the hospitality industry is seeing a strong number of pre-bookings, although the spring and summer weather also will have to cooperate for tourism dollars to exceed recent years. 

“It will be difficult to repeat back-to-back years of outstanding weather that allowed an early start to the tourism season and lingered into the fall,” he says.

An anticipated major expansion of the Coeur d’Alene Resort could be a catalyst for additional construction activity in downtown Coeur d’Alene, Wilson says.

The latest design proposal submitted to the city of Coeur d’Alene envisions a 12-story, 166-room second tower at the hotel. Although no firm start or completion dates have been announced by the resort, Wilson says construction could get under way next year.

Tony Berns, executive director of Ignite CDA, which is the urban renewal agency for the city of Coeur d’Alene, says the $2 million first element of the city’s multiphase Four Corners master plan likely will be constructed in 2016. The project will include realigning Mullan Avenue from the west edge of downtown through the Fort Sherman grounds.

North Idaho College, Lewis-Clark State College, and the University of Idaho hope to firm up a $6 million funding package for a joint-use facility on the NIC campus near the west edge of the Four Corners area.

“It would be an economic entity for the next several decades,” Berns says of the planned facility.

The residential real estate market in Kootenai County has seen consistent strong growth in the last few years, and Kim Cooper, spokesman for the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors, predicts continued growth through the coming year.

“We’ve seen and will continue to see increases throughout the Multiple Listing Service,” says Cooper, who also is a broker at Select Brokers LLC, in Coeur d’Alene. 

The number of homes sold through the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors MLS in the first 11 months of the year has jumped 19 percent compared with the year-earlier period, while the year-to-date $203,000 median sales price represents an 8 percent increase.

Shelly Enderud, Post Falls city administrator, says several factors could add horsepower to that city’s economic engine in 2016.

The recently opened Greenferry overpass at Interstate 90, which is a new north-south link in Post Falls, should provide a measurable boost in traffic for some businesses along Greensferry Road, Enderud says.

She predicts single-family and multifamily residential construction will remain strong through 2016.

In the first 11 months of 2015, Post Falls issued building permits for 400 dwelling units, including 226 single-family homes, up from 165 dwelling units, including 144 single-family homes, in all of 2014.

She says developers plan to construct multifamily housing projects in west Post Falls and near City Hall next year.

Draper, Utah-based Wadsworth Development Group, which owns 161 acres comprising the vacant land at the Pointe at Post Falls, is working with some large retailers and hopes to have contracts signed in 2016, with openings late next year or in 2017, Enderud says.

Medical facilities also are expanding in the Post Falls medical district along the Mullan Avenue-Polston Avenue corridor, where Kootenai Health is constructing a $10.5 million expansion and Northwest Specialty Hospital plans to begin constructing its second office building in 2016, Enderud says.

—Mike McLean