Despite clouds over the broader economic horizon in the form of lingering inflation and rising interest rates, Kootenai County’s economy continued to plot a steady path of growth in 2023 and faces a favorable outcome in the coming year, says Sam Wolkenhauer, Post Falls-based labor economist with the Idaho Department of Labor.

While Kootenai County's unemployment rate edged up to 3.5% in October from a remarkably low level of 2.8% a year earlier, total employment increased 3.1%, demonstrating some measure of economic durability, Wolkenhauer contends.

“The growth of the labor force, in particular, demonstrated a resilient growth pattern, which defied expectations that unfavorable conditions in the housing market would end the region’s longstanding pattern of population growth,” he says.

The regional business community demonstrated similar strength, with the number of employing organizations rising year over year, he adds.

Current Idaho Department of Labor forecasts anticipate continued growth in the region, with the population and employment growing at 1.6% and 1.3% annually, respectively, Wolkenhauer says.

Tony Berns, executive director of ignite cda, which is the urban renewal agency for the city of Coeur d’Alene, notes that planned development activity in the mixed-use Atlas District urban renewal area is expected to remain steady through 2024.

“A lot of homes are being built and mixed-use product is going in,” he says. “It hasn’t slowed down.”

Berns says a combination of about two dozen town homes and detached single-family homes valued at $800,000 to well over $1 million are expected to come online in the Atlas District in 2024.

Tax-increment revenue that finances public infrastructure in the district is coming in at a steady pace, he says, adding that development within the city's urban renewal districts has been increasing in value.

The elevated market value, however, makes it difficult to develop attainable housing, Berns says.

In downtown Coeur d’Alene, work on the foundation and parking area for the long-planned $45 million Thomas George high-rise condominium project at 116 S. Third, is underway.

Near there, at the southwest corner of Second Street and Sherman Avenue, the recently announced 139-room Sherman Tower, which will be affiliated with the nearby Coeur d’Alene Resort, is on the drawing boards.

Farther west in Kootenai County, Shelly Enderud, Post Falls city administrator, says single-family and multifamily residential permitting activity has slowed. The city issued permits for much of the current residential construction over the past four years. 

Enderud says commercial activity, however, is steady with a significant uptick in valuation of projects being constructed, which bodes well for 2024.

The west side of Post Falls is seeing multiple projects pop up, including small retail, restaurants, and large industrial buildings, two of which are 168,000 square feet and 238,000 square feet in size north of Interstate 90, she says. Industrial buildings also are being built on speculation in the Riverbend Commerce Park, on the south side of I-90.

Transportation improvements expected to lead to economic enhancement include the Highway 41/I-90 interchange, which is expected to be completed in 2024, Enderud says. While the I-90 widening project is still in the planning stages, the timetable for the Idaho Route 53/Pleasant View Interchange project has been moved up, and construction is expected to begin in 2024.