206-Acre Industrial Park planned north of Post Falls

Developers aim to divide industrial land into 38 lots
Spokane Journal of Business. By Mike McLean November 5th, 2015


Bighorn Farm LLC, of Spokane Valley, has bought 206 acres of land in unincorporated Kootenai County, near the north edge of Post Falls, and plans to develop an industrial park there, says George Lawrence, who co-owns Bighorn Farm with Rich Dahm.

Lawrence says Bighorn Farm will divide the park into 38 roughly 5-acre lots.

“The area is in need of some of that,” he says.

The property, located at the northwest corner of Poleline Avenue and Pleasant View Road, is zoned for industrial land use, Lawrence says.

“We’ve got a few manufacturers looking at it,” he says.

It’s too early to estimate the total value of the development, Lawrence says, although he asserts the land value alone likely will exceed $5 million when infrastructure is complete.

Bighorn Farm will sell some of the lots and will lease others, he says.

The developer also will build structures to suit buyers and tenants, or they can select their own contractors, Lawrence says.

The structures likely will range widely in size from 6,000 square feet to around 100,000 square feet, he says, adding, “We’re talking to a number of people about sizes.”

Bighorn Farm, which will act as its own contractor, plans to begin site work this fall and hopes to complete road and utility connections for some lots by next spring, Lawrence says.

“We’re going to try to market it before then,” he says of the industrial park development.

Dahm is a longtime Spokane real estate developer whose company, Summit Properties Inc., has been developing lots in the multiphase Morningside Heights subdivisions in south Spokane Valley for a number of years.

Lawrence is a principal of Consumer Auto Liquidators, an Airway Heights-based used-vehicle dealership. He says the Bighorn Farm venture is the first development that he and Dahm have owned jointly in Idaho.

Commercial real estate brokers Craig Hunter and Rob Kannapien, both of Coeur d’Alene-based Coldwell Banker Commercial Schneidmiller Realty, negotiated the real estate transaction.

“It took about a year to get it organized,” Lawrence says of the land buy.