It seemed laughable when Mayor Sandi Bloem and other Coeur d’Alene visionaries talked of an education corridor stretching northwest along the Spokane River from North Idaho College.

After all, a profitable Stimson Lumber Co. mill stood between their dream of a vastly expanded waterfront campus – that, and approximately $10 million in relocation costs. Most wanted the education corridor and the range of four-year degrees it would offer, but no one wanted to lose the decent-paying mill jobs. Checkmate? Not quite.

Marshall Chesrown, the Spokane Valley kid who made good, stepped into the breach. And voila! Chesrown and Stimson are working on a deal that would open the land for college expansion by relocating Stimson’s DeArmond mill next door and another one on Seltice Way to the Hauser area. Chesrown would have precious waterfront property to offer to the college and develop. Stimson would have a state-of-the-art mill built by Chesrown in a better spot. And jobs would be saved.

Usually, things don’t work out this way. Someone wins. Someone loses. In this instance, the city of Coeur d’Alene, college officials and others who envisioned transformed areas downtown and along the waterfront appeared to be the ones who would lose – until Chesrown came along. The ability of the Kidd Island Bay developer to think on a grand scale that will benefit his adopted community as well as himself sets a high standard that other major developers should emulate.

Some have.

John Stone, the Spokane developer who is building the 78-acre Riverstone project at the western entrance of Coeur d’Alene, negotiated in good faith with the city to allow the Centennial Trail to run through his property. Developers Tom Johnson and Cliff Mort agreed to donate 1,000 feet of beach along the Spokane River when they build their $100 million Mill River development on the old Crown Pacific mill site along Seltice Way. Johnson and Mort benefited from urban renewal district financing and annexation, of course, but they still made a significant gift to the public.

Along with native Duane Hagadone, this new group of developers is transforming the mouth of the Spokane River and Lake City’s western entrance. They’re providing the means for Coeur d’Alene to prosper and provide expanded public access to its stunning waterfront. City officials, including Bloem and City Attorney Mike Gridley, and urban renewal experts deserve credit, too. Some have braved withering criticism and delays for a quarter of a century to revitalize the downtown.

Coeur d’Alene will look much different a few years from now. The waterfront will be teeming with office buildings, high-rises, education buildings and upscale residents, as well as traffic from new public access. A new library will anchor one corner of the downtown. Midtown could be a haven for townhouses and condominiums to house college instructors and staff.

Coeur d’Alene set the stage for its recent “luck” by careful planning and a confident attitude. In some ways, those attributes are as vital as creative developers with money to making things happen.