[jimthemanincda]

Tomorrow I'll put up an old article from 20 years ago predicting Cd'A's "future." It is surprisingly very, very accurate.

Article from last year on the Resort's 20th Anniversary:
The Coeur d'Alene Resort 20 years ... and counting

COEUR d'ALENE -- It was 20 years ago today that thousands stood in the rain for their first look at what would soon be known as a world-class hotel.

In an era when unemployment was in double digits in some parts of North Idaho and in a city that few outside the state could pronounce, it was seen by some as a risk that could ruin the man who conceived the project and saw it through to completion.

But on that rainy Sunday, nothing could dampen the confidence of Duane Hagadone, as he stood in line to greet as many as 25,000 visitors to The Coeur d'Alene, a Resort on the Lake on its first day open.

"It was huge," Hagadone said. "People were lined up through the park. They waited two to three hours. It was unbelievable.

"I stood there and shook hands for nine hours. I never got a chance to leave. It was a great day."

Hagadone owns The Press and other newspapers in the Northwest, and often held functions at the North Shore, a nine-story hotel and convention center that was the flagship of Western Frontiers, a company that included partners Bob Templin, Bill Reagan Sr. and Joseph Jaeger Jr., who ran a restaurant in Ritzville.

"I learned a great deal from them," said Jerry Jaeger, who began working for his dad in that restaurant in 1960 and later joined Western Frontiers. "In fact Bill's son, Bill Jr., is general manager of The Resort today."

The relationships would prove valuable in laying the groundwork for Hagadone's vision.

"When Bob (Templin) and Bill (Reagan) decided to sell the company they went straight to Duane and asked if he had an interest," Jaeger said.

Hagadone didn't hesitate. On June 6, 1983, Western Frontiers became Hagadone Hospitality with Jaeger as junior partner.

"I acquired the property only on the condition that Jerry Jaeger came on as a partner to run it," Hagadone said. "I, being a newspaper publisher, knew nothing about the hospitality business."

It didn't take long before plans were made for an elaborate makeover of the waterfront property that included the hotel, the convention center and Templin's Restaurant.

"I always thought that it deserved to be a world-class hotel," Hagadone said. "It was on the shore of one of the five most beautiful lakes in the world, downtown, near an international airport."

He traveled the country, with an eye in particular on the Northwest, to see what kind of competition he would face. Others, he found, weren't modern, weren't quality or up to date.

"I wanted to make sure we were No. 1 in the Northwest," Hagadone said. "I wanted to make it 20 percent better than anything else in the Northwest."

He already owned a construction company, which several years before built Kootenai Memorial Hospital -- since renamed Kootenai Medical Center -- and other large projects, and soon was brainstorming with architect R.G. Nelson and John Barlow, president of Hagadone Construction to make his vision a reality.

One of the biggest challenges Hagadone gave them was building the resort while continuing to operate the existing facilities.

"It was something most architects wouldn't get in to," Nelson said.

He asked Hagadone to tear down the hotel and start from scratch, but accepted that that was not economically feasible.

Though the concept developed quickly, sometimes Hagadone's ideas caught even his partner off guard.

Jaeger recalls a presentation in Spokane in 1984, where Hagadone described the Hagadone Suite on the top floor, a Jacuzzi hanging off the side of the building, and a glass-bottomed pool.

"I'm feverishly writing," Jaeger said. "That wasn't in the design."

Hagadone credits Jaeger's hospitality skills for the success of The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

"Jerry has really been the guy who's run the hotel," he said.

Jaeger has as much praise for Hagadone.

"The vision of Duane Hagadone is incredible," he said. "It was the combination of his vision and a wonderful team of employees who made it a success."

It was the same a few years later, when Hagadone decided to build a golf course on the other side of town on a closed sawmill site.

"He asked me what I saw," Jaeger said. "I said an old sawmill that needs to be torn down. He said, 'I see a beautiful golf course.'

"He pointed to a log boom and asked me what I saw. I told him I saw a log boom. He saw a log boom in the shape of a green. He said, 'If they can float logs there, we can float a green.' That's exactly how the floating green became reality."

Five years after The Resort opened, the golf course and Plaza Shoppes opened.

"The first five years we did a lot of customer surveys," Jaeger said. "They loved The Resort and the community, but said it needed a golf course and downtown shopping."

Hagadone is pleased with the success of his vision.

"It's turned out to be a wonderful resort," he said. "It's been a good investment for the Hagadone Corporation and for all of North Idaho."

The project

John Barlow was in his mid-30s, having formed Hagadone Construction Company with Duane Hagadone at age 28, after being in construction since 1972.

He knew he was facing a tough project, and a tough deadline, with orders to complete an 18-story hotel and new convention center in 15 months against daunting obstacles.

"For all but four months, the North Shore was to stay open while we built above and around it," he said.

"There was water on three sides, and a hotel on the fourth."

He'd overseen construction of Kootenai Memorial Hospital, but on a less restrictive schedule.

He had one thing on his side.

"If not for the depressed market, we would have had a hard time getting enough skilled labor," he said.

Normally, there would be one supervisor overseeing the entire job.

At times during the construction, there were as many as 10 working on the hotel.

"It created a fiefdom of each guy," Barlow said.

The payroll of Hagadone Construction was around 400, he said, with as many as 1,000 subcontractors and off-site workers.

"It truly was a difficult and challenging project because of the details and the quality of the work," Barlow said. "The time frame, with two winters and one summer, was hard. It would have been nice if it had been two summers and one winter."

Instead, during those winters of 84-85 and 85-86, the weather was spectacularly cold, enough to freeze over much of Lake Coeur d'Alene.

That was just one challenge, but they got through with no disasters, and only a few miscommunications. Like the chairs for Beverly's, The Resort's upper-level view restaurant, with frames built in Europe to be upholstered in North Carolina.

As finishing time drew near, no frames had been delivered, so they decided to airfreight the specially ordered fabric to Europe for completion.

"In the spring of 1986 two planes crossed paths over the Atlantic," Barlow said. "One carried the frames to North Carolina, and the other the upholstery headed to Europe."

Word of that led to a short, awkward silence during the ensuing phone call, Barlow said, but the chairs were finally delivered on time.

The logistics of construction with limited access meant bringing in massive amounts of material through a corridor from the old convention center, where the parking garage now sits. With hundreds of workers moving through the six-foot-wide, 500-foot-long passage, it was so busy it became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

It was just one of the memorable parts of the construction that concluded just in time for his 36th birthday on May 3, 1986.

"It was rewarding to look back on," Barlow said. "But when it was finished, we didn't want to go back in, I was so tired."

He credits the leadership of his boss for inspiring those who worked for him, even as the deadline for completion loomed and much work remained to be done.

"We had discussions to learn how to finish on time," Barlow said. "We said if we decided we can, we will, but if there's any doubt, it will unravel.

"Duane bred an infection to get it done."

The result

In July 1986, Forbes magazine did a story on The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

"Duane Hagadone has built himself a fancy resort hotel in the middle of nowhere. Why?" the writer asked.

Hagadone scoffs at the notion the project was a risk.

"There were definitely those that thought it was a huge risk," he said. "I didn't think it was a risk at all, but it far exceeded my expectations."

It didn't take long to prove them wrong.

"It was pretty immediate, pretty drastic," said Jonathan Coe, then in Sandpoint, where unemployment was 17 percent in 1984, and now president of the Coeur d'Alene Area Chamber of Commerce. "It put Coeur d'Alene on the map. It's getting Coeur d'Alene and North Idaho to a much larger market."

At the time The Resort was built, it was hard to find a job in the area, he said.

"In some ways it seemed preposterous that Duane could create this resort in this area."

Gary Norton had made a fortune in the electronics industry before selling out and buying a small airport in Athol a few years before Duane Hagadone decided to build a resort on the lake.

Norton was about ready to sell the Henley Aerodrome and move on until he saw what The Coeur d'Alene Resort meant to North Idaho.

"It inspired me to put the effort and money into Silverwood," he said.

Though he knew it was not a great business model, the theme park he opened was a fun hobby for about a decade before it began making money. But he followed the model he saw at The Coeur d'Alene.

"If you build real quality, people will come," he said. "He built for quality, and people came. Now, we sell thousands of hotel rooms a night."

Nancy DiGiammarco is Silverwood's marketing manager now, but was a recent Southern California transplant not involved with tourism when The Coeur d'Alene opened. She and her family were among the ones standing in the rain for a tour on Sunday, May 4, 1986.

"At the very end was the best surprise," she said. "Duane and Lola (Hagadone's wife) were shaking every person's hand. We were impressed that this gentleman who built this facility would do that.

"We look back at that event as what started tourism and put Coeur d'Alene on the map.

"The next year Gary opened Silverwood. The Coeur d'Alene Resort was a stroke of genius that did this region a huge favor. My ad does not say 'Athol.' It says 'Coeur d'Alene.'"

The next chapter

By the early 1990s The Coeur d'Alene Resort had been named the No. 1 Travel Product in the world by Conde Nast, a New York publication with a million readers. The golf course has consistently ranked in the top 20 among golf publications, sharing space on a list that includes Pebble Beach, among others.

But Duane Hagadone was not content to let his hotel and all its amenities rest on its laurels.

The course underwent a multimillion dollar improvement over the winter, and The Resort's new rooms have been remodeled. Renovations to the lobby began this week, and that and the new 30,000-square-foot spa are expected to be completed on schedule in early June.

Complete modernization and reconfiguration of the 25,000-square-foot Conference Center will also be done by June.

The Hagadone Suite is being transformed into an ultra-exclusive private bungalow, complete with personal butler.

"It's spectacular," Jaeger said. "It's safe to say The Resort will be better than it was 20 years ago."