Land sales that have been completed recently or are under way in the Silver Lake Center, a 145-acre commercial development along U.S. 95 in Coeur dAlene, are expected to lead to a surge of construction activity there.


The timing is right. Its kind of like a feeding frenzy, says Monte Risvold, vice president at Tomlinson Black North Idaho Inc., who along with Tomlinson Blacks Ron Branson has been handling the property sales.


Heres a look at some of the most recent activity at Silver Lake Center, which is located between Hanley and Wilbur avenues on both sides of U.S. 95:


Parkwood Business Properties, of Coeur dAlene, has agreed to build an 85,000-square-foot facility at the southwest corner of Wilbur and U.S. 95 that it will lease to Advanced Input Devices, the Coeur dAlene maker of custom keyboards and other high-tech components. Parkwood will buy a 20-acre parcel there.


Mike Wilson, AIDs chief financial officer, says the company, which employs 370 people, will move its Coeur dAlene operation to the new building. Construction is slated to begin this summer and to be completed in the spring of 1999, he says. Eventually, the building may be expanded so it has 125,000 square feet of space, he adds. AID has been looking for a new location for its Coeur dAlene operation for several years.


Trammel Crow Development, a Dallas-based national developer, has bought a piece of land between the Target store and the former Ernst store in Silver Lake Plaza, a retail area in Silver Lake Center, and plans to build a 40,000-square-foot building there with construction expected to start June 1, Risvold says. An office-products retailer, whom he declines to name, will occupy 23,500 square feet of floor space in the building, and Trammel Crow is seeking other retailers for the remaining space.


Silver Park Associates LLC, a Hayden Lake investment group, has bought two one-acre parcels in Silver Lake Office Park, another part of the development, at the northwest corner of Canfield Avenue and Mineral Drive.


The group plans to build an $850,000 professional building, with 7,000 to 9,000 square feet of floor space on one of the parcels, and is considering its alternatives for the other, he says.


In addition, a Spokane bank has agreed to buy a parcel along U.S. 95 in the office park for a new bank branch, Risvold says. He declines to identify the bank. Another party is buying two parcels adjacent to the banks site for a retail or office complex that could tie in with the bank branch.


Coldwater Creek Inc., the Sandpoint-based catalog retailer, said earlier that it has bought six acres in the office park as a possible site for a new $6 million facility for its Coeur dAlene call center. Coldwater Creek then said that project is on hold.


The completed and expected land sales in Silver Lake Center would add up to more than $3.5 million at list prices, Risvold says.


Silver Lake Center includes Silver Lake Mall, an enclosed shopping center; Silver Lake Plaza, which is anchored by the Target store; and Silver Lake Office Park, which includes the headquarters of Hecla Mining Co.


Coeur dAlene-based Hecla once owned all the land in the center and has been selling off pieces of it for years.


Meanwhile, more sales in the center may be looming. A full-service restaurant is eyeing a site at the northwest corner of Hanley and Mineral, and a 6.4-acre site to the east of Silver Lake Plaza is being subdivided into marketable lots, Risvold says. He says he has received a pile of offers for different parcels within the center and claims that a couple of the parcels have brought offers well above the asking price.


With the recent completion of a new Albertsons supermarket nearby on U.S. 95, interest in the U.S. 95 corridor has peaked, Risvold says. Everything is cooking along. Its getting really hot.