New commercial and housing developments are cropping up in Suncrest, a community 10 miles northwest of Spokane that long has been a woodsy outpost along the 25-mile-long reservoir known as Long Lake.


More than $20 million in commercial and infrastructure construction is under way or planned there, along both sides of state Route 291, over the coming year. With permits issued for more than 200 new homes there in the last three years, valued at more than $34 million, Suncrest is coming into its own.


People want to stay out here, live out here. Its exciting, says Joel San Nicolas, owner of Phase 1 Physical Therapy LLC and Suncrest Fitness Inc., whos building a $1 million facility for his businesses there.


Greg Sather, a real estate agent with Tomlinson Black Inc., of Spokane, who markets property in the Suncrest area for that company, attributes the strong housing market there to continued demand for more space and rural living.


I think its the large lots Gods little acre, Sather says.


Currently, 60 homes are planned for the Suncrest North housing development on Meadow Vista Drive and other nearby roads just to the north of the Lakeside Middle School, Sather says.


Other projects planned or under construction include the $1 million Lake Spokane Community Health Center, a 128-home gated subdivision called Blackstone, $18 million in public school improvements, and a new Catholic church for the congregation there.


Farm animals hold court in the backyards of what otherwise appear to be typical suburban homes just across the street from the middle school.


The desire for a piece of the rural life drove the first Suncrest housing development, too, back in the 1970s, says Bill Main, Jr., owner-broker at Re/Max of Spokane Inc.. His fathers company, William Main Development Co., sold about 175 lots there then to builders and marketed the homes they built through another family company, Main Realty.


Initially, as I recall, it was the first development of any size with acreage-type lots, Main says. The 1.4-acre home sites had beach and lake access, and offered urban refugees attracted to the Spokane area during Expo 74 a place to escape to, Main says.


Unfortunately, Main says, on the day the developers held a grand opening, gas prices tripled, casting doubt on the concept of commuting to and from Spokane. The lots sold briskly, however, despite the price of gas and a lack of urban infrastructure, Main says.


Hank Dias was one such urban refugee who moved to the area from Lake Tahoe, Calif., shortly after the Main Development was put on the market. The desire to reduce the amount of driving for needed groceries and other goods and services inspired Dias to build the 20,000-square-foot Suncrest Outpost shopping center, which has come to be the areas most visible landmark, Dias says.


We bought a house in 82, then I decided we better do something, because its a long way to town, Dias says.


Altogether, he owns more than 250 acres of land there, some of which he intends to develop, and some of which will be placed into trust to preserve the rural feel around a gated subdivision, called Blackstone, that his company, 3D Development Inc., is developing.


Dias says members of the community send him letters asking him to add services at the Outpost, which currently has 10 retail spaces in addition to several freestanding businesses located on pads on the property.


Ive been asked for a number of thingsa bank, a cleaners, a Subway sandwich shop, Dias says.


Dias recently sold some property next to his Blackstone development to Northeast Washington Health Programs, which is preparing to construct its $1 million medical facility on the site. That facility, which is to be named Lake Spokane Community Health Center, is in large part a response to a request by a community advisory group to the Stevens County Commission to offer medical care in the area, says Helen Loomis, a spokesperson for Northeast Washington Health Programs.


Work already is under way for San Nicolas $1 million project about a mile north of the shopping center, for his Suncrest Fitness Center, and Phase 1 Physical Therapy. San Nicolas plans eventually to construct a strip shopping center on the property as well, he says. He adds that people who live in Suncrest are looking for ways to avoid commuting to Spokane for services.


Other types of projects are popping up in Suncrest, as well.


Nine Mile Falls School District patrons earlier this year passed a measure to pay for an $18 million expansion and renovation of the districts two grade schools, the largest of which serves 500 children in the Suncrest area.


The school district has grown steadily, so much so, in fact, that two full classes of fifth-graders at Lake Spokane Elementary had to be bused to the other side of the district last year because the school had run out of classrooms, says interim superintendent Bridget Lewis. This year, the district has bought a portable building to accommodate the overflow classes until the new wing at the school is completed in 2008, she says.


Separately, Our Lady of the Lake parish intends to construct a Catholic Church on a 13.9 acre parcel it owns right across the highway from Lakeside Middle School, says building committee chairman Steve Feider. Plans are on hold, though, while the parish seeks to settle up its share of a recent bankruptcy settlement by the Catholic Diocese of Spokane.


The parish already has made some improvements to its site. In 2003 the congregation constructed a labyrinth, which is a maze-like path designed for reflective contemplation. Last year, septic and sprinkler systems were added, and this year the parish has built a 3,000-square-foot patio that has been used for summer weddings and outdoor church gatherings. For now, the congregation meets at the Tum Tum Community Center, but the growing parish pushes the limits of what the center can handle, Feider says.


Future developments seem to be brewing as well. Mike Baumgarden, owner of NVest Real Estate Inc., of Suncrest, which sells a lot of homes in that area, also is a partner in Lakeside Properties LLC, a development company there that owns a number of parcels next to the church property zoned for high-density commercial use. The company currently is solidifying plans for commercial and residential developments that it hopes to launch next year, though Baumgarden says project details havent been finalized.


There have been reports of a new bank, United Community Bank, looking for space there, but a person identified as a representative for that planned bank could not be reached for comment.


Baumgarden says Stevens County currently is working on a growth management plan, and he believes that when the plan is approved, development activity in the Suncrest area will accelerate further.


Dias agrees, adding that there isnt much people need that they cant get right in Suncrest now.


We may be small, but we have it all, Dias says.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at jeanneg@spokanejournal.com.