Cedar Motel demotion gets underway
LOREN BENOIT/Press Caution tape surrounds the Cedar Motel and RV Park as crews wrap-up demolishing the structures on Tuesday. Plans are to have the property clear by May.
LOREN BENOIT/Press Rubble from the Cedar Motel and RV Park lays on the ground after being demolished earlier in the week. Demolition began in April after the property was bought by Duane Hagadone, owner of Hagadone Corporation. Plans are to have the lot clear by May in preparation for new buildings.
LOREN BENOIT/Press Clothing rests in the rubble of one of the demolished Cedar Motel and RV Park buildings on Tuesday.
COEUR d’ALENE — Demolition of the Cedar Motel and RV Park began in earnest this week after area law enforcement agencies used the buildings for Special Weapons And Tactics training.
“We let them use the property and they did a series of training runs,” said Duane Hagadone, CEO of the Hagadone Corp., which recently purchased the property.
Hagadone said he has been trying to buy the property for several years because it adjoins The Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course, and he wanted to clean it up.
“The first step was to buy it and clean it up,” he said. “I am confident that will be accomplished by the first of May.”
The SWAT team got that process rolling when it used its Bearcat armoured personnel carrier to assault the building with battering rams. By Wednesday all that was left of one building was a massive pile of debris.
“I have no immediate plans for the site, but it does adjoin the golf course,” he said. “An eight or 10-story building overlooking the golf course and lake would be good right there.”
He said if that is the direction he decides to go, he would probably put mid-range apartments in the building.
John Barlow, who works for Hagadone, said once the property is cleared by the former landowner, the Hagadone Corp. will reclaim the site and fill in all of the holes where a series of faulty septic tanks were removed.
“We will then fill the holes in the way we want them filled,” Barlow said, adding they want to make sure the ground is structurally sound enough to build on in the future. “But it will sit idle for now.”
Barlow said the Hagadone Corp. has an agreement with the city to connect the property to the sewer system when it eventually decides to build on the site.