Schweitzer announces village expansion

SANDPOINT — Schweitzer Mountain Resort has announced that it will add 20 new residences to its signature residential property the White Pine Lodge.

The four-story addition will add 16 two-bedroom/two-bath homes and four three-bedroom/three-bath homes. The three-bedroom homes will be designed as lock-off units allowing for varied configurations for owner rental and usage.

“These are whole ownership residences in the heart of the village,” said Rod Engel, Schweitzer’s director of real estate. “Historically this has been the most successful project on the mountain in terms of sales prices and is also in the highest demand from our lodging guests.”

The first phase of the White Pine Lodge was completed in 2002 and included 50 homes. Located in the center of Schweitzer Village it includes 5,000 square feet of commercial space and a variety of amenities include fitness center, owners lounge, owner and guest ski storage and terrace with several hot-tubs that face east looking out over Lake Pend Oreille.

“The overall market for real estate at Schweitzer has improved dramatically over the past two years” said Patrick Werry of Century 21 Riverstone. “The sale and the scheduled completion in 2014 is timed well, given what we believe will be a market that continues to strengthen.”

The expansion of the White Pine Lodge is the fourth major real estate development undertaken at Schweitzer in the past 14 years dating back to the redevelopment of the Selkirk Lodge in 1998.

“Our goals as owners of the resort are to incrementally grow and diversify the lodging and real estate mix available on the mountain,” said Tom Chasse, president of Schweitzer Mountain Resort. “We want to grow logically and conservatively as the demand in the region warrants. We are fortunate compared to many resorts across the west that were over-built and over-priced and are still struggling.”

Schweitzer expects to release the final pricing for homes in early February and will begin selling units at that time with construction scheduled to begin as early as summer of 2013. Lydig Construction of Spokane who built the original White Pine are expected to build the project which is being designed by Seattle based Collins-Woerman Architecture.