Kootenai County is looking to continue to build on gains it has achieved in active construction projects since the low point of the Great Recession.

Projects valued at more than $210 million currently are under construction, permitted, or planned. That doesn’t include a couple of public works projects in the early planning stages involving the city of Coeur d’Alene and its urban renewal agency, Lake City Development Corp., that likely will lead to further development, says Tony Berns, LCDC director.

Those high-profile early planning projects include the Four Corners area and the Spokane River corridor.

Four Corners is being envisioned to include connected trails, parks, recreation, and cultural amenities, many of which could be constructed separately, using a variety of funding sources, Berns says.

The Four Corners master plan area includes 40 acres of land along a two-mile stretch on the west side of the Northwest Boulevard corridor, from Independence Point on the western edge of downtown north to the Riverstone development. The area encompasses 40 acres of land, 29 of which are owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management along former railroad right of way.

Northwest of the Four Corners area, the city of Coeur d’Alene and LCDC are negotiating the purchase of two additional miles of BNSF Railway Co. right of way along the Spokane River between Riverstone and Huetter Road.

“That needs to be accomplished before other development can occur,” Berns says.

The right of way runs through the former Atlas Mill site, which has been cleaned up since the mill closed a decade ago.

The city of Coeur d’Alene has vowed to enhance and protect public access to the river, with the purchase.

In the largest ongoing construction project in the county, Kootenai Health is in the midst of a $57 million expansion at its main hospital campus, at 2003 Kootenai Health Way, near the northwest corner of U.S. 95 and Ironwood Drive in Coeur d’Alene.

Bouten Construction Co., of Spokane, is the contractor on the project, and NAC|Architecture, also of Spokane, designed it.

The project includes construction of a three-story, 100,000-square-foot addition that’s going up on the hospital’s east lawn.

The ground floor of the addition will include a family birthing center, a neonatal intensive care unit, a lobby and registration area, and an expanded waiting room.

The second floor will have 32 patient rooms and will house Kootenai Health’s neurology and orthopedic units.

The third floor will be shell space to be completed later.

The addition is expected to be completed in the fall of 2016, and will be followed by two additional phases of hospital expansion.

On the western edge of downtown Coeur d’Alene, the city has issued building permits to Aspen, Colo.-based development company One Lakeside LLC that gives it the go-ahead to construct a $20 million, 15-story high-rise.

Construction is expected to start this spring on that structure, which is to be located at the northwest corner of First Street and Lakeside Avenue.

Salt Lake City-based UPA Resort Construction Group is the contractor on the project, and Denver-based Oz Architecture designed it.

North Idaho subcontractors on the design team include Coeur d’Alene-based Welch Comer & Associates Inc. and Trindera Engineering Inc., and Hayden-based AllWest Testing & Engineering LLC.

The 170,000-square-foot One Lakeside tower is to include a mix of 64 condominium and rental units with one, two and three bedrooms and living space ranging from 750 to 3,400 square feet, says Greg Hills, a principal at One Lakeside.

The units will be marketed toward a demographic mix that likely will include young professionals, doctors and lawyers, second-home buyers, and empty nesters, Hills says.

One Lakeside will have a rooftop pool and health-club area for residents.

The project also will include ground-floor commercial space for a convenience store and deli, Hills says.

To make room for construction, the developer plans to raze a vacant two-story former apartment building known as the Mudge building.

The project is expected to be completed in about two years, Hills says.

In Riverstone, Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC is developing a $3.1 million office building.

Edwards-Smith Construction LLC, of Coeur d’Alene, is the contractor on that project, and Eixenberger Architect, also of Coeur d’Alene, designed it.

The project site for the 31,800-square-foot, two-story brick building is located at 2000 W. John Loop, on the northwestern shore of a manmade lake in the central area of Riverstone.

The project is scheduled to be completed by late spring or summer.

In north Coeur d’Alene, work is nearing completion at a $5.5 million Metro Express Car Wash outlet erected at 3131 Conference Drive, just east of U.S. 95, about a half-mile north of Interstate 90.

Hayden-based Young Construction Group of Idaho is the contractor on the project, and Howa Design Inc., of Boise, designed it.

The car wash, which is scheduled to open in April, will have a 240-foot-long enclosed washing lane that will handle up to 2,500 cars a day.

Education

 

In the education arena, North Idaho College plans to issue a call for contractor bids this spring to construct its planned $15 million Technical Education Facility on the south edge of Rathdrum, says Chris Martin, NIC’s vice president for finances and business affairs.

Work on the 71,800- to 100,000-square-foot facility will begin this summer, Martin says, adding, “We anticipate the move-in in July or August of 2016.”

The facility will be located on a 40-acre parcel of land that NIC owns on west Lancaster Road, adjacent to the Kootenai Technical Education Campus, which is operated by a consortium of three school districts in Kootenai County.

Coeur d’Alene-based Architects West Inc. is designing the project to accommodate NIC’s technical education programs in automotive technology, diesel technology, machining, industrial mechanic and millwright training, outdoor power-vehicle technology, and welding.

The design team also includes LSB Consulting Engineers PLLC, of Spokane; the Spokane office of Seattle-based Coffman Engineers Inc.; Coeur d’Alene-based Trindera Engineering Inc.; the Coeur d’Alene office of Boise-based J-U-B Engineers Inc.; and Opsis Architecture, of Portland.

The project will nearly double the capacity of the technical education programs currently located on NIC’s main campus in Coeur d’Alene or at the Workforce Training Center, at Riverbend Commerce Park, in Post Falls.

Separately, NIC, along with Lewis-Clark State College and the University of Idaho, envision a $6 million joint-use facility on the NIC Campus, Martin says.

The state’s Permanent Building Fund Advisory Committee has forwarded NIC’s request for $4 million in state funds to the Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance and Appropriation Committee as a top priority to receive permanent building funds, he says.

Each college also would chip in close to $600,000, he says.

The building would be located at the northwest corner of River Avenue and Hubbard Street on the north edge of campus.

Martin says the building would be a one-stop shop for all student services for the three colleges.

“Students would have a single point of contact for all higher education in Coeur d’Alene,” he says, adding that classroom space in the building would be available to all three institutions.

If the funding is approved, preliminary planning for the project would begin this spring, Martin says.

In the Coeur d’Alene School District, T.W. Clark Construction LLC, of Spokane, has begun work on a $6.6 million project that will replace the 90-year-old Winton Elementary School, in Coeur d’Alene.

The project includes tearing down the 35,000-square-foot school building and replacing it with a 55,000-square-foot structure that will have six additional classrooms.

Longwell+Trapp Architects PLLC, of Coeur d’Alene, designed the project, which is scheduled to be completed this summer.

The project is the last of five major school construction projects funded through a $32.7 million bond measure approved in 2012.

Residential

 

Although new-home construction dipped 8 percent in terms of individual starts in Kootenai County in 2014, Post Falls City administrator Shelly Enderud says construction activity is picking up this year in a few residential subdivisions there.

“Things are coming back together,” she says.

The largest subdivision under construction is the 57-lot Tullamore Fourth Addition, near the Prairie Avenue and state Route 41 intersection in northeast Post Falls.

Copper Basin Construction Inc., of Hayden, is developing the subdivision. Homes currently for sale in Tullamore range in price from just under $200,000 to upwards of $270,000, which would put the total value of the subdivision at more than $11.4 million.

Most floor plans offered at Tullamore by Copper Basin have 2,400 to 3,300 square feet of living space, with three to five bedrooms.

Separately, MCD Properties LLLP, of Coeur d’Alene, is developing the 49-lot Crown Pointe Second Addition subdivision near the intersection of Spokane Street and Prairie Avenue, in north-central Post Falls.

Hallmark Homes Inc., of Dalton Gardens, is marketing homes at Crown Pointe starting at under $150,000, which would put the value of the subdivision at likely more than $7.4 million.

The Coeur d’Alene City Council has approved land-use requests for an envisioned Lilac Glen 70-bed assisted living facility and 20 other residential units on 13 acres of land near the French Gulch area on the east edge of the city.

Miller Stauffer Architects PA, of Coeur d’Alene, is designing the project for development owner Larry Fluet Revocable Trust, also of Coeur d’Alene.

The Lilac Glen development site is just east of I-90, on the south side of the junction of 23rd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

The assisted-living facility is envisioned in two buildings on the site, and the development also would include six single-family residential units and 14 duplex units.

Construction is expected to be completed this spring on Monte Vista Villas, a $2.6 million, 40-unit senior housing complex, on 3.6 acres of land at the northeast corner of Best Avenue and 15th Street.

A&D GC Inc., of Santee, Calif., which is owned by project developer Andrew Otero, is the contractor, and ML Architects & Associates Inc., of Post Falls, designed the development.

The complex will include 20 single-story, duplex structures, and individual living units will have roughly 800 square feet of living space.

North of downtown Coeur d’Alene, the long planned Midtown mixed-use project remains fluid as developers continue to fine-tune the design, LCDC’s Berns says.

The latest proposal for the $8.5 million, three-story project, which would be located at the northwest corner of Fourth Street and Roosevelt Avenue, is being designed by Miller Stauffer Architects PA, of Coeur d’Alene. It envisions up to 5,800 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a total of up to 40 apartment units on the second and third floors.

Berns says the developer, Boise-based nonprofit The Housing Co., plans to seek tax credits in September, and construction could begin in 2016.

Post Falls

 

Construction is under way on a long-envisioned I-90 overpass in east-central Post Falls that will link north and south sections of Greensferry Road, which currently terminate on opposite sides of the freeway.

Draper, Utah-based Ralph L Wadsworth Construction Co. is the contractor on the $15 million design-build project. The design team includes J-U-B Engineers, Coeur d’Alene-based Ruen-Yeager & Associates Inc., and Chicago-based H.W. Lochner Inc.

The overpass will have two lanes in each direction, bicycle lanes, and sidewalks that will connect with the Centennial Trail south of the freeway.

The project is expected to be completed next fall.

Final roadwork and landscaping is scheduled to be completed this spring to cap off a $13.5 million upgrade and restoration of the south channel dam on the Post Falls Dam complex, operated by Spokane-based Avista Corp.

Spokane-based Max J. Kuney Co., of Spokane, is the contractor on the project, which has been under way for nearly a year.

The work included removing the original concrete facing and gate frames and adding new concrete spillway gates, and hoists.

Denver-based AECOM is the civil engineer on the project. Avista designed some of the electrical controls in-house.

In west Post Falls, Advanced Thermoplastic Composites Manufacturing Inc., which manufactures parts primarily for the aerospace industry, has started work on a $4.9 million facility and plans to move there later this year from its current base in Spokane Valley.

The Haskins Co., of Spokane, is the contractor on the 65,000-square-foot structure at 1224 N. Lean St., just west of the Kimball Office Inc. plant.

The project is expected to be completed this summer or fall.

In the growing medical corridor in east central Post Falls, North Idaho Surgical Hospital Building LLC recently started work on the first of three planned buildings in a new medical complex to be called Syringa Medical Campus, at the northeast corner of Mullan Avenue and Syringa Street.

Young Construction Group is the contactor on the initial $2.1 million design-build project, and d’Zign Group LLC, of Hayden, is leading the design work.

The two-story Building A, which is expected to be completed in June, will have 17,000 square feet of office space.

Two other buildings of similar size also are planned as part of the Syringa Medical Campus, although no construction dates are set for those buildings yet.

Mullan North LLC, a Coeur d’Alene real estate investment group, has announced it plans to develop a $3 million commercial center this year east of the Post Falls medical district.

Eric Hedlund Design LLC, of Coeur d’Alene, is designing the project. A contractor hasn’t been named for it yet.

The development, tentatively named Mullan & Cecil Retail Complex, would include two multitenant buildings with a total of 17,000 square feet of space and would be located at the northwest corner of Mullan and Cecil Road, across from a Walmart store.

Tenants haven’t been named for the project yet.

The city of Post Falls expects to put out a call for bids within the next few weeks for wastewater treatment system improvements budgeted at $13 million, Enderud says.

The work will upgrade the headworks, odor-control system, and ultraviolet disinfection system at the city’s treatment plant, at 2002 W. Seltice Way.

J-U-B Engineers is assisting the city staff in the preliminary design and bid specifications, Enderud says.

“We’re hoping to start work this summer,” she says, adding that she anticipates that the project also will be completed this construction season.

Hayden

 

In a separate wastewater treatment project, the Hayden Area Regional Sewer Board has launched a $14.5 million phase of upgrades at its wastewater treatment plant on the Rathdrum Prairie to help it comply with new pollution standards under its federal discharge permit.

TML Construction Inc., of Hayden, is the contractor on the project, at the Hayden plant at 10789 N. Atlas Road, near the Coeur d’Alene Airport. The Spokane office of J-U-B Engineers designed the project.

The project includes constructing new headworks with updated equipment and applying flow-equalization measures to help the plant manage high use periods in the mornings and evenings. One component of the project is a new 800,000-gallon tank that will use microbial organisms to remove a higher degree of phosphorus and nitrogen from the wastewater.

The project is scheduled to be completed by fall 2015.

Triple Play Family Fun Park, the amusement center attached to the Holiday Inn Express in Hayden Idaho, is completing a $1 million-plus, 8,700-square-foot addition that will include an expanded laser tag arena and an indoor ropes course, says Mike Murphy, Triple Play’s general manager.

Triple Play is acting as its own contractor on the project, says Murphy, who’s heading up the project. H2a Architects PA, of Coeur d’Alene, designed it.

The project site is located near the northeast corner of U.S. 95 and Orchard Avenue, about four miles north of I-90.

The laser tag arena will have a total of 3,6oo square feet of space including a mezzanine level that will be within the field of play. It will replace a smaller single-level laser tag area.

The three-level ropes course, which Murphy describes as combination obstacle course and climbing structure, keeps participants tethered to an overhead rail so they can’t fall far from challenging features, including a tightropes and beam walks up to 25 feet in the air.

The new attractions are scheduled to open March 20, Murphy says.