City gets glimpse of Resort tower

COEUR d’ALENE — The new Coeur d’Alene Resort tower is beginning to take shape, but a final design — let alone construction — is still a ways off.

A proposal for the project was delivered Wednesday to the city’s planning department, and a public meeting with the Design Review Committee is scheduled Nov. 19, said John Barlow. Barlow’s company, JRB Properties, is managing the project for Hagadone Hospitality.

Barlow said Hagadone Hospitality is proposing a 12-story guest room tower that will be about 40 feet wide. The tower will go from Sherman Avenue above and across Front Street, where it will connect to the Resort’s existing parking structure.

Barlow said the public meeting Nov. 19 will be the first of several meetings with the Design Review Committee.

“This isn’t a zone change request,” Barlow said of that meeting. “This is about what the building will look like.”

He said zoning would allow the tower to go as high as 220 feet, but the drawings and details submitted Wednesday suggest a building with its peak “somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 feet.” Barlow emphasized that the exact dimensions won’t be determined until the design review group shares its recommendations after the Nov. 19 meeting.

“This is all dictated by code,” Barlow told The Press. “There’s a downtown zoning that dictates this, and the tower project is way, way within that.”

Barlow said the proposed design will be announced at the next public meeting, probably in December or January. Construction is likely to begin next fall, he said, with the expanded facility opening on or before May 1, 2018.

At this point, however, plans call for 158 additional guest rooms and another 10 guest suites on top.

“That meets the criteria of offering 500 rooms, which are necessary for big conventions,” Barlow said.

He said retail will occupy the ground floor of the tower, and an additional floor will be added to the existing parking structure to accommodate guests.

Local company Longwell + Trapp Architects is working with JRB Properties on the project.