Lake City Development Corp., of Coeur dAlene, has acquired the last piece of property for a proposed higher education corridor in Coeur dAlene, and is picking up properties for a potential parking garage downtown.


LCDC bought the small chunk of land for the higher education corridor in mid-July. Its the last of 10 properties the corporation has purchased since 2003, says LCDC Executive Director Tony Berns. LCDC is an urban redevelopment agency established by the Coeur dAlene City Council to promote development activity in the citys Lake District, which contains portions of the downtown, midtown, and Northwest Boulevard, and the River District, between Seltice Way and the Spokane River.


The parcels intended for the education corridor are located within a 1.6-acre triangle off Lincoln Way, next to Coeur dAlene Skaters Park and north of Memorial Field, Berns says. He says the parcels cost a combined total of $1.3 million.


Its not a huge amount of property, he says of the most recent acquisition, but its very strategic, and we can do some wonderful things with it.


Berns says future use of that land hasnt been determined yet, but it will be either public space or part of the higher education corridor, which was proposed a few years ago.


In 2002, North Idaho College, in Coeur dAlene, the Moscow-based University of Idaho, the city of Coeur dAlene, and LCDC penned an agreement to establish that corridor, which would be located along the Spokane River from U.S. Highway 95 to NICs campus. They agreed to acquire that property for educational uses, including expansions of both UI and NIC. Lewiston, Idaho-based Lewis-Clark State College has since joined the project.


At the time of the agreement, a key component in the plan involved Portland, Ore.-based Stimson Lumber Co.s DeArmond Mill, located on a 17-acre site next to NIC at the center of the proposed corridor.


Developer Marshall Chesrown signed a working agreement with Stimson Lumber last March to relocate the mill.


The two parties are still in negotiations, Berns says.


If Stimson decides to leave, it probably will relocate to Hauser, Idaho, where it operates another mill.


Meanwhile, plans for the education corridor are still on hold until Stimson Lumber completes its plans, Berns says.


A BNSF Railway Co. track runs through the mill property in Coeur dAlene, and Berns expects that track would be pulled up if Stimson relocates its mill.


He says most of the land then would be owned by the city of Coeur dAlene and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, with which the city would negotiate to acquire the rest of the property.


The main domino to fall is the Marshall-Stimson deal, he says. The rest of the pieces are in place and everybodys just patiently waiting for the two major players to strike a deal.


LCDCs most recently acquired property also is located within its Four Corners urban renewal project, which extends from Independence Point to River Avenue.


What that project will entail still is under study, and Berns says Hatch Mueller Associates PC, of Coeur dAlene, currently is developing ideas for it.


He says hes waiting for the master planning of the education corridor to begin before getting the Four Corners project under way.


Separately, LCDC is acquiring property downtown near the Coeur dAlene Federal Building for a structure that would include a parking garage and street-level retail space, Berns says.


The concept for that structure is similar to that of River Park Square in downtown Spokane, he says.


LCDC has acquired three properties, or about half of the land needed, for the structure.


Berns says the trigger wont be pulled for the parking garage project until there is enough public demand for structured parking instead of surface parking.


Our main goal right now is to assemble the property, he says. Then well have it in our hip pocket until the timing is right.