About Sandpoint's Dover

Construction is definitely moving forward rapidly on the first units of the Parkside Bungalow neighborhood at Dover Bay Waterfront Resort. These most recent photos were taken on Thursday, and already the framing is almost complete and the walls are going up on the 1-bedroom plan that will be next door to these. These first two bungalows are both 2bdr plans with lofts. At around 1200 square feet, the Parkside homes are significantly bigger than any of the Beach Bungalows (the current rental product at Dover Bay).

Many people have a tough time envisioning the difference in size between these for-sale bungalows versus the rental product. The largest of the Beach Bungalows (rentals) are 600 square feet, and none of them have lofts. When you walk through these new framed homes (each with 2bdr, 2 bath, plus large loft), you really get a sense for how much nicer these will actually be.

For details on the Parkside Bungalows at Dover Bay, please visit http://www.SandpointResortRealty.com/doverbaybungalows.html.

Or call me at 208-304-5665.

Parkside, the newest neighborhood at Dover Bay Resort, has officially broken ground on the first three Bungalows this week. This is a big testament to the development that should provide a good deal of confidence in the community and its success.

It is fairly unusual in this area for builders to begin the foundation process in the middle of winter, but Dover Bay Development is pulling it off. Ralph Sletager who has spent alot of time in Alaska (with even shorter building seasons) has borrowed technigues commonly used in that area. After digging out the snow with standard equipment, the ground is heated in order to dry everything in preparation for pouring the concrete. Its pretty neat seeing this underway in the midst of a fairly deep snow pack.

The first three Bungalows underway are 10, 11, and 12, located in the southeast corner of the neighborhood between Dover Bay Way and Lakeshore. This 'pod' of bungalows, along with 13-17, are as close to the amenities of the Marina Village as you can get. This includes the Marina, waterfront Cafe and Market, Fitness Center, Pool, Spa, Volleyball, Beach Park, and miles of trails. The larger open area between Parkside and the Marina is commercially zoned, and more amenities will ultimately be in place right next door.

The first closings for Parkside will take place in the early summer, and a model home will be built on this corner making it visible to all Dover visitors. The difference in these larger Parkside Bungalows, in comparison to the rental bungalows that are already built, will be fairly substantial. While the basic finishes and look will be the same, the Parkside homes will offer increased square footage, and most will elect to go with the optional loft. All of the 2bdr plans will feature 2 baths as standard, and square footage will be approximately 1200 for the 2/2 with loft plans. In addition to choosing from a number of floor plans, buyers will have some nice options if they want to upgrade their bungalow. These include hardwood floors, granite counters, stainless steel appliances, etc.

The Parkside neighborhood is sure to be a big success. Dover Bay has hit upon a product that appeals to many people right now... single family detached homes, fully maintained, optional vacation rental opportunity, at a price point that opens the door to many people. Starting at $198,500, the Parkside Bungalows will be a smart and attainable lifestyle and financial investment for years to come.

For more details or copies of floor plans, please contact Rick Evans at 208-304-5665 or visit http://www.sandpointresortrealty.com/doverbaybungalows.html

The Sandpoint Winter Carnival contines to get better as Dover Bay Resort adds to the mix of actitivies at Schweitzer and Sandpoint with the Dover Bay Winter Festival. Winter Carnival Weekend takes place January 15-18.

Dover's Festival takes place primarily on Saturday, featuring a Polar Plunge (in the pool), a Snowshoe Volleyball Tournament, and Snowmobiling Demos. The Dover Bay Cafe will offer an outdoor, lakefront BBQ with brats and beer, along with breakfast and lunch off the menu.

Also taking place at Dover on both Saturday and Sunday from 11-4p is the Midwinter Art Festival. Sandpoint's biggest winter art event will feature the work of dozens of area artists, all hosted in various homes and venues throughout the waterfront resort. www.MidwinterArtFest.com. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of art will go to local charities affiliated with Sandpoint's Winter Carnival.

The Art Festival is sponsored and hosted by both Dover Bay Development and Tomlinson Sandpoint Sothebys Intl Realty, through the Listing Agents handling Dover Bay's real estate. One of those Agents is yours truly of course. Credit should be given to Gary Lirette, another Sothebys Agent, for orchestrating this event. This is really a great way for Dover Bay to show local and regional residents all that it has to offer, in a fun and no-pressure atmosphere.

Schweitzer Mountain will have quite a bit going on over the weekend as well. The highlight is the Torchlight Parade and Fireworks on the mountain starting at 6pm. The torchlight ski parade is alot of fun and is open to anyone. Night skiing will of course be going on, and it is just awesome to ski down with torches as fireworks are going off. We did this last year during a snow storm- hopefully we'll be so lucky again!

Fortunately the Dover events are over by 4 or 5, providing plenty of time to get to Schweitzer for the evening festivities. There will also be live music at Taps along with St Bernard. (Incidentally the St Bernard has really become a fantastic place for dinner or evening entertainment since my pal Scott Bortz took over last season).

The entire weekend starts off with the Taste of Sandpoint on Thursday night from 5-8p. Originally scheduled for the Cedar Street Bridge, this has been moved to the Sandpoint Events Center this year. The Winter Art Trek will be in Downtown Sandpoint on Friday night from 5-8p, along with a bonfire and Rail Jam at Jeff Jones Town Square. The weekend is capped off on Sunday at 10am with the Eichardt's K9 Keg Pull, one of the truly unique events in Sandpoint.

For more information on Dover Bay, Schweitzer, or Sandpoint visit www.SandpointResortRealty.com or give me a call at 208-304-5665. Whether it is real estate related or not, I am happy to help out.

When we moved to Dover Bay Resort this Fall, we figured we could really enjoy the rest of the season here, with the biking, hiking, etc, until the snow came. Now that Winter is here we have found an entirely new appreciation for where we live. Everything is SO white, serene, and magical out here, and it feels like we are living in the country. Yet we probably have more conveniences than most... the roads and sidewalks are plowed before anyone in Sandpoint, we can open the door and walk the cross country and snow shoe trails, and we can wander to the Cafe and Market for breakfast, or Joe's for a coffee.

I usually walk our dog, Bentley, each evening after dark. At dusk yesterday we went for a walk along the trails to the Dover Beach, where we ran into a huge moose and its calf. It was quite the moment and I'm just sorry I didn't have a camera to capture the beauty of these huge animals contrasted against the blanket of white covering everything.

My wife received snow shoes and cross country skis for Christmas, which has really helped her to enjoy the Winter. She leaves our back door with our baby boy and our dog to go snow shoe or cross country along the trails throughout Dover. Our hope is that the trail system here will continue to be developed, particularly for the winter season to encourage these types of activities. We have found that our friends always enjoy coming to see us this time of year and making use of the access we have to the great outdoors!

Despite the present day economic conditions, Dover Bay Resort, near Sandpoint Idaho, has a healthy pace of building activity underway or planned for the winter. Several custom homes are nearing completion, while Dover Bay Development is moving forward with permits and construction in several of its neighborhoods.

Here is an inventory of the current building activity at Dover Bay Resort:

Dover Point (the exclusive 9 waterfront homesites in West Dover or ‘Tank Hill'): Hope Builders is finishing interior work on a custom waterfront home on Lot 6; Tom Runa Architects has designed a plan for a custom home on Lot 4 of Dover Point, and the site is currently being engineered for the foundation and road; a personal client is closing on lots 7&8 and working with local architects to design and engineer plans for their custom home. With this closing their will be no more homesites available on Dover Point, meaning 30 waterfront lots have now sold in the resort. The newly released Sunset Estates in West Dover will be the final waterfront custom homesites to be sold.

Another waterfront neighborhood, Riverside, has several beautiful homes in progress. On Lot 5 there is a 5000 square foot custom home by Dan Herbie Construction out of CDA, which is nearing completion. Lot 12 (closer to Marina Town) has another custom home that is almost complete, built by Mountain View Construction. Next door to this is a spec home that is now offered at $2.395 million.

Across the street on Bergstrom Avenue there are three homes by Sandpoint Builders which are nearing completion (one of these is pre-sold). Western Luxury Homes has completed another spec home next door to these. Reedwalk is the neighborhood with all homesites offering frontage on Brown's Inlet. A new custom home by Homestake Construction is now framed on the first lot adjacent to Dover Way.

Dover Bay Development is also continuing to move forward on several neighborhoods. The strategy has always been to start construction on new buildings as contracts are received. This conservative approach has served Dover Bay very well. For the Cottages at Dover Meadows, permits have been pulled to construct 2 Cottages in phase 2, the Stockdale plan on lot 2 should be completed in time for its buyer to close in January, and the Sexton plan on Lot 2 has been coming along quickly. This house is now framed, landscaping is in, and the drywall should be completed soon. The timing for a buyer is ideal in that they still have the opportunity to choose all their interior finishes and colors.

Marina Town, the luxury waterfront condominiums, has a new building that was completed this month. The bottom two units have already sold, leaving the two top floor condos remaining. Two reservations have already been received on the next building which could begin construction this winter. Bayside South, the secondary waterfront condos facing Marina Town, have also been a very successful product. All the units in the existing buildings are sold, with the exception of the model in building 3. There are two reservations on a future building, with either building 4 (facing Marina Town) or building 11 (facing wetlands) having foundations poured and ready to go with the next buyer.

The first six Bungalows in the Parkside neighborhood, rounding out the Marina Village, will likely be started in the next week or two (weather depending). The permitting process has been completed, and foundations are ready to be poured. One of these will be a model home which will host open houses in the Spring. These Bungalows will be similar to the 19 Beach Bungalows which were completed in June as a rental product for the resort. The new for-sale bungalows in the Parkside neighborhood will feature larger, improved floor plans with lofts.

All in all there is a very healthy pace of building activity at Dover Bay Resort, not only by the principal developer but by some of the top builders in the area. There seems to be an appropriate amount of spec building going on, so that Dover does not have to suffer from any oversupply issues even in a slower market.