Cedar Street Bridge offering 'condos'

SANDPOINT — There are two business rumors floating around the Cedar Street Bridge.

Rumor No. 1: The bridge is about to become home to condominiums.

Rumor No. 2:  The retail property spanning Sand Creek will be broken into separate pieces and sold off to different owners.

According to its owners, both are true. Some clarification is in order, as the above events are closely related and the bridge as we know it will look and function in exactly the same way. What’s changing is that, since John Gillham and Jeff Bond transacted a land trade with the city of Sandpoint in August that gave them title to the bridge mall, they now have the opportunity to sell space there, as opposed to leasing it out.

“The biggest thing going on at the Cedar Street Bridge has been the creation of commercial condominiums — units that the business owners can buy,” Gillham said. “Really, condominium means you’re buying a piece of the pie; you don’t have to buy the whole pie.”

The pie, in this case, is a rustic take on the Ponte Vecchio bridge market in Florence, Italy, with vaulting tamarack poles in place of stone arches and Sand Creek standing in for the Arno River.

The commercial condo business model has proven successful in places such as Spokane and Seattle, Gillham explained, adding that he began to develop the concept for Sandpoint after prospective tenants inquired about purchasing space on the bridge.

“I can’t take credit for the idea, but I will take credit for listening to people who said, ‘You know, I would be interested if I could actually own the place,’” he said.

The inquiries began upstairs, in the restaurant area originally occupied by The Henry Villard restaurant when the bridge opened in 1983. Restaurateurs liked the space, but universally argued that, after investing in leaseholder improvements, they would want the option to sell the real estate down the line.

In response, the owners now have compiled a series of listings that break the 29,000-square-foot interior of the Cedar Street Bridge into 40 distinct commercial spaces, ranging from 400-1,550 square feet in size. According to Gillham, the condominiums will be offered at prices that fall below what the bridge could offer in lease rates. Listings start at $64,000, he said, and an 1,100-square-foot space will be priced between $120,000-$130,000.

Gillham and Bond plan to offer owner-carried contracts with a down payment of 15-20 percent of the purchase price, while tenants using Small Business Administration financing can close the deal with 10-15 percent down. The floor plan includes the existing, enclosed commercial space, as well as the adjacent “kiosk” spaces — what Gillham described as listings that run from “windows to walls” on the bridge.

“The owners would have three options for what to do with their kiosk spaces,” he said. “They could rent them, they could sell them outright, or they could keep them.”

The sole, long-term tenant on the Cedar Street Bridge had been Coldwater Creek, which utilized the entire structure for 10 years before buying property to open its own store across the street on First Avenue in 2006. Before and after the tenure of the Sandpoint-based national women’s specialty retailer, the bridge struggled with finding a groove that delivered strong occupancy rates and customer traffic counts.

Gillham believes that selling commercial condominiums, rather than leasing retail slots, will change the complexion of tenants and bolster longevity by attracting veteran retail concepts.

“The economy hasn’t been kind to new businesses,” he said. “The huge difference here is that people who are likely to buy these listings already own businesses that are established and successful.”

Active marketing begins this week on the new model, with a target area that fans out to a wider audience but is centered on Sandpoint professionals and businesspeople, according to Gillham.

“My hopes are that the locals who have a need and a use for this will become the owners,” he said. “Buying a downtown Sandpoint building is not within reach for most businesses, because they’re million-dollar properties. But owning a piece of the pie — and taking advantage of the economy in numbers that comes with things like shared utilities and maintenance costs — makes it affordable for people.”