Parkside Tower, 3rd floor public patio
As we head into the weekend run-up nearing the 4th of July, I thought it might be fun to try to name the “public” places we all have a right to go. I’m talking about places that LCDC gave money to fund “public” amenities. I’ll start with a few and you can chime in with any you might remember:
If you can’t find parking downtown, you can park for free at 700 NW Blvd. in the parking lot of the old North Idaho Title building which is now the Law Offices of Ramsden and Lyons. The tall retaining wall and parking lot were one of the first projects by LCDC way back when, and their meeting minutes state that the public is free to park there after hours and on weekends.
Need a place to hang out for the afternoon? The outdoor patio on the third floor of the new, tall, Parkside Tower is open to the public. It’s a bit crazy to find because you have to go into the lobby and up the stairs or elevator, but LCDC voted $100,000 in public tax increment for that patio, the outdoor furniture and landscaping (trees in big pots). They said the public is welcome to use it. That was just part of LCDC’s total of $820,000 in tax allotment for the building.
And if you need to use the bathroom while you’re at City Beach, you can always jet on over to the Chamber of Commerce building. It’s beautiful, and the LCDC gave $300,000 to this private building for a patio and bathrooms, which they say the public can use. I haven’t had the pleasure myself, but I understand they are very nice.
Can you think of any others?
Wow, Marys found us a place to park,
dine and go to the bathroom.Then we could head over to the Regal Cinemas at Riverstone and catch a movie!I don’t want to go near any place LCDC had a hand in developing.
I went by Riverstone on Seltice Way and their sign said; that the starting bid on condos is $125,000.I
thought that there was an auction on the 14th of June, to auction off 36 units and the starting bid was $180,000.So, what happened?They were’nt able to sell all of the condos at the last auction?Maybe, Stone will soon be liquidating his corporate jet.The irony is:that LCDC is helping to fund the 3rd street project at mid-town, to help out with affordable housing and those condos are supposed to be selling for upwards of $300,000! ;-o
Comment by kageman — June 26, 2009 @ 9:33 am
I meant to say 4th street.
Comment by kageman — June 26, 2009 @ 9:36 am
Kageman, According to the discussion with Douglas Peterson at a Midtown meeting, the studios are estimated to start around $125,000 and continue upward from there. When asked about a play area for children in this workforce housing, the response was that the units would be geared to working people without children. Mike Kennedy stated that people who had children could take them to Phippany Park a couple of blocks away.
Comment by Susie Snedaker — June 26, 2009 @ 12:58 pm
I’m totally going to buy one and let my kids run rampant. I bet they alone could get the remaining starting prices down under $100k. 😉
Comment by eq72521 — June 26, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
Oh, it seems that you were talking about the new housing going up in midtown somewhere. Nevermind, maybe the Riverstone condos are already geared toward families…
Comment by eq72521 — June 26, 2009 @ 2:06 pm
Don’t forget that LCDC paid for half of the “Public Safety Building” in City Park. Next time you’re there, notice the new fence that encloses the east and south sides.
Comment by Bill — June 28, 2009 @ 4:21 pm
I bet it’s hot in there.
Comment by Dan — June 28, 2009 @ 4:49 pm
Come August it will be hot. I was in the Park at 2:30 p.m. today taking this photo. Nearly all of the several hundred people in the Park were over at the bandshell listening to the summer concert. If there had been a health or safety emergency, do you think they would have sprinted across the park to the geriatric hot dog stand to summon help? Doubtful. More likely the cellsite would have been overloaded by 9-1-1 calls from cell phones in the park. The Mayor, the City Council, the Parks Director, and the Police Chief ripped off the citizen taxpayers to the tune of $50,000 for this, Coeur d’Alene’s equivalent to the “Bridge to Nowhere”.
Comment by Bill — June 28, 2009 @ 6:54 pm
We looked at the condos in Riverstone a few weeks ago. They are really pathetic and anyone who paid full price for one had to have more money than brains. The few other couples looking that day were as unimpressed as we were. Information catalogues littered the models where they got left by disinterested parties. A week or so after our visit we got a call from Riverstone asking about our interest and if we intended to register for the auction. I suspect that at their reserve prices then that they were not getting much traction on attracting auction prospects. Now apparently the reserves have been lowered even further. The in between message is that the Village is done. I doubt if there will be future construction by John Stone. The project might be pursued by another builder but you can bet that even more construction corners will be cut. They might as well change the development name to “Albatross Landings”.
Comment by Wallypog — June 29, 2009 @ 6:58 am