Coeur d’Alene Resort adding another tower as part of its biggest upgrade ever, with new restaurant and more rooms planned

The Coeur d’Alene Resort this week held a groundbreaking for what the company president called its biggest expansion since the resort tower opened 39 years ago.

Crews have already built the basement and began this week putting in the footers that will support a 15-story, stair-stepped structure located across the street and just north of the existing resort that overlooks Lake Coeur d’Alene and Tubbs Hill.

Coeur d’Alene Resort President Bill Reagan wouldn’t put a price tag on the project, saying that number remains in flux, but published estimates put the figure between $25 to $48 million.

“This will be the single largest financial commitment our company has ever made,” Reagan said. “It’s a big deal.”

Expected to be complete in April 2027, Sherman Tower will add 139 rooms to the resort’s existing 338 rooms. The tower will also include an adjacent 180-seat restaurant that will feature a rooftop bar with retractable-glass panels.

“It creates more energy downtown. We are excited for the project,” Reagan said.

He noted that about 40% of Coeur d’Alene Resort guests fly into Spokane International Airport, get shuttled to the resort and never rent a car.

“That’s what makes Coeur d’Alene so special,” he said. “It’s all right here, whether it’s going on a hike on Tubbs Hill or going out on the boat a couple hours or a walk around downtown or around North Idaho College.

“There so many great things you can do right here.”

The resort employs about 1,200 people. That number swells to about 1,500 during the peak summer months. Sherman Tower will add another 200 workers to that mix, Reagan said.

The resort is operated by Hagadone Hospitality, which is named for founder Duane Hagadone, who died in 2021. He took control of the resort when he and Jerry Jaeger wrested control of Western Frontiers Inc. from Bob Templin in 1983.

Western Frontiers had made a fortune selling quarter-acre lots in a 200-acre subdivision, Bonanza Ranch, named after the popular television series, that promised a slice of the Idaho dream, and it advertised the lots in magazines for $10 down and 6% interest.

However, buyers would flock to Coeur d’Alene only to find out that they couldn’t build on their lots because the soil wouldn’t support septic systems.

After taking over 51% of Western Frontiers, Hagadone and Jaeger renamed the existing North Shore Resort to the Coeur d’Alene Resort. In May 1986, it opened the 18-story Lake Tower, which still operates to this day.

Then in 1988, Hagadone purchased 14 acres of a former sawmill site for $490,000, which became home to the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course and its world-famous floating 14th hole green. The course opened in the spring of 1991.

Reagan said that Sherman Tower represents the latest chapter of the resort’s storied history.

While construction is expected to take two years, visitors this summer should see minimal impacts. Reagan noted that a few side streets had to be closed for crews to install utilities, but that work is finished.

Most of the crews will be able to work at the site, located on Sherman Avenue between North 1st and North 2nd streets, without road closures, he said.

“I think it’s going to have a pretty good impact on us,” he said. “The summertime is our busiest time, when the hotel is pretty much sold out. I think we will also have a really positive impact in the wintertime.

“Anything we can do to bring more people downtown is good, because it’s still a fragile economy in the wintertime downtown.”