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Midtown CdA up for some urban renewal

Alison Boggs
Staff writer
November 18, 2008

"I think this could be a funky hot spot," said Williene Gagnon, about the revitalization plans for Midtown Coeur d’Alene, which will encompass 10 blocks of Fourth Street. She is the owner of Paris Flea Market on 4th and was preparing her front window for Christmas. (KATHY PLONKA The Spokesman-Review)

Heading north out of downtown Coeur d’Alene on Fourth Street, the decorative intersections with their street lights and colored stone walkways disappear, giving way to cracked concrete, chipped curbs and bare sidewalks.

That should change this spring when 10 blocks of that arterial — from Lakeside to Harrison avenues — receive a $3 million facelift. It’s the latest in a string of street beautification projects in the Lake City that began in the late 1980s with the upgrades of Sherman and Lakeside avenues and stretched more recently to the city’s western entrance, Northwest Boulevard.

Three entities — the city of Coeur d’Alene, the Lake City Development Corp. urban renewal agency and the Idaho Housing Finance Association — will join together to not only renovate and upgrade the northbound arterial that connects downtown with Interstate 90, but also to add work force housing in the section of the city called Midtown.

“This is about sprucing up the heart of Coeur d’Alene,” said City Councilman Mike Kennedy. “It’s old Coeur d’Alene. It’s sort of Coeur d’Alene’s heritage.”

Coeur d’Alene is committing $1 million to repave, rebuild curbs and sidewalks, add lighting and upgrade underground utilities, said City Engineer Gordon Dobler. In the core of Midtown, near a popular bar and restaurant called Capone’s, the street will be narrowed, sidewalks will be widened and decorative intersections will be added to slow traffic and encourage walking. Also planned are landscaping, benches and street lights.

The city expects to begin work this spring, with hopes of finishing by summer, Dobler said.

By the time the project is complete, the Lake City Development Corp. will have contributed more than $2 million to the street rebuilding project, enhancements of intersections and to support the work force housing component, said LCDC Executive Director Tony Berns. Property owners will kick in another $250,000 through a local improvement district, Dobler said.

“I am absolutely for it,” said Tom Capone, owner of Capone’s, which has expanded several times in its 15-year history. “It’s progress. We own the real estate so whenever you upgrade the real estate, the building values increase, in theory.”

Some neighbors and property owners, however, have voiced concerns. Some worried about a loss of parking in front of businesses where sidewalks will be widened. Some said their sidewalks are just fine as they are. And several felt the property taxes received by the LCDC should cover property owners’ portion of the bill.

The LCDC receives funding through tax increment financing in which property values in a defined area are frozen at a point in time. As those property values naturally increase, the LCDC receives some of those additional taxes and uses them for public improvement projects.

Months worth of public meetings were held to address neighborhood concerns, Berns said. As a result, the LCDC agreed to pay a portion of the local improvement district bill. Other adjustments to the designs were made to try to address neighbors’ concerns, he said.

North of Capone’s, at Roosevelt Avenue and Fourth Street, the Idaho Housing Finance Association will build a four-story condominium building with retail shops on the ground floor. The building will offer 20 to 35 one- to two-bedroom units ranging in size from 1,000- to 1,200-square feet. When completed, both the retail units and the residences will be offered for sale. Prices for the residential condominiums are expected to range from $135,000 to $225,000, said Douglas Peterson, director of The Housing Company, the IHFA’s nonprofit development arm.

The IHFA bought the property from the Idaho Youth Ranch, which is moving its thrift store to a larger location several blocks to the north. The thrift store anticipates a grand opening in its new location at the end of January.

The Housing Company’s mission “is to help out those places where people need housing … we come in and try to get the deal done,” Peterson said. “I see the market in Coeur d’Alene as being pretty good for work force housing.”

Peterson said construction on the condominiums wouldn’t begin until the Fourth Street upgrade is mostly complete. He anticipates drawing a building permit in the summer of 2009 and offering the first units for sale by the spring of 2010.

Contact Alison Boggs at alisonb@spokesman.com or (208) 765-7132.

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