Foss tugboats, marina sold

Tugboats are one of Lake Coeur d’Alene’s most enduring icons. For decades, the trim green-and-white boats have corralled logs from the timber-rich St. Joe region, and delivered them to local mills in a marine version of a cattle drive.

But in a sign of changing times, Foss Maritime’s 12-tug fleet is being purchased by a developer.

The Seattle company will sell its Lake Coeur d’Alene operations to developer John Stone. The sale could close as early as this week.

Stone, who’s redeveloping a former mill site on the Spokane River into housing, offices and shops, said Tuesday that he has no immediate plans to dismantle the 86-year-old tug business or disrupt log deliveries to operating mills. Ed Haglund, the longtime manager of Foss’s Coeur d’Alene operation, will retire after the company changes hands. The other 10 workers will remain.

“Our first choice is to give the guys a soft landing,” Stone said. “Many of them have been with the company for 25 to 30 years.”

The purchase entails Foss’s 130-slip marina on Blackwell Island, five acres of land, and the company’s marine operations, which include log hauls, boat repairs and dam work. The sale price was not disclosed.

Foss Maritime, with operations up and down the West Coast, approached Stone’s Seattle affiliate about the sale.

“They saw this as a diminishing opportunity…It isn’t a growing business,” Stone said.

Foss Maritime officials did not return calls Tuesday. However, the tug business – started in 1918 by Al Lafferty and later purchased by Foss – was built around log hauls. It once served four mills on Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Spokane River. Only two of those mills remain in operation.

Stone said the tugs will continue to deliver logs to Stimson Lumber Co., which owns the two remaining mills. Tugs continue to be a cheap and efficient way to move wood. Each tug boat hauls the equivalent of 750 to 1,000 logging trucks worth of timber.

“We don’t have any concerns about the change of ownership,” said Michael Razzeto, the operations manager for Stimson’s Inland Region. “Mr. Stone has indicated that he will continue operating the business.”

Stone said he hopes to diversify the tugs’ work on the lake. In the long run, however, the Foss acquisition represents much more to Stone, a Spokane developer who’s reshaping Coeur d’Alene’s shoreline. Five years ago, Stone bought the former W-I Forest Products mill site on the Spokane River. The site is being redeveloped into the Riverstone neighborhood of upscale housing, offices, restaurants, entertainment and shops.

Through the purchase of Foss’s marina, Stone will acquire 130 boat slips close to the Riverstone development.

Acquisition of property on Blackwell Island is also strategic. The parcel is adjacent to property that North Idaho tourism magnate Duane Hagadone bought last year. Hagadone plans to overhaul an existing marina on the island to accommodate larger boats on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

“It’s a great piece of property, and it’s next to Duane Hagadone’s plans for his marina expansion,” Stone said.

With the purchase of Foss’s tug operations, Stone’s employees will also deliver logs to a mill he hopes to someday see redeveloped for higher education.

Stimson’s DeArmond mill has become a coveted development site. The city of Coeur d’Alene eventually hopes to relocate the mill, which occupies prime real estate on the Spokane River. The mill lies adjacent to the North Idaho College campus, and the college wants to expand.

Stone is an enthusiastic supporter of the plan. If the college expands, the educational corridor would extend north to his Riverstone development.

The Foss sale won’t close until the state approves a transfer of the permit that allows operation of the marina in state waters. The transfer is routine and should take place in the near future, said Carl Washburn, Department of Lands specialist for navigable waters and submerged lands leasing.