A few comments suggestions and ideas.
With vaccinations increasing and the eventual re opening of the Canada/US border, it finally feels like we are putting Covid in the rear-view mirror. The US market development program has a number of excellent trade activities coming up this fall that will take place in person! Yup, in person. We will cover these activities in the next couple of issues of the Wood Connections, but today I thought we would continue the review of some interesting construction projects south of the border.
One of my favorite cities in the Pacific Northwest is Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. You may have remembered me mentioning it in a past Wood Connections as I discussed some of the great architects that call Coeur d’Alene home and reviewed the Discovery Land Corp Gozzer Ranch project. Well, Coeur d’Alene is in the news again with a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that rated the lakeside city as the number one emerging housing market in the US. That is quite an accomplishment and one that is driving a tremendous amount of residential and commercial construction activity.
Coeur d’Alene is like Whistler in that it has great recreational activities including watersports, golf and skiing, and according to the WSJ, investment is pouring into the region helping to drive the construction frenzy. One example is the Schweitzer Mountain Resort, about 15 miles from the downtown core, which is in the midst of a complete transformation with over $85 million dollars of investment, including the construction of the new Humbird hotel. The hotel is being designed by Skylab Architecture in Portland and is expected to feature exposed mass timber throughout the design.
The Schweitzer Resort is one of many exciting construction projects currently taking place in the beautiful city of Coeur d’Alene. If this market is of interest to you, please reach out to me at dfarley@bcwood.com as we have some excellent contacts with builders, architects, and distributors in the region.