Owner of Warm Springs Resort in Idaho City is making another run at re-opening pool | Boise, Garden City, Mountain Home | Idaho Statesman
The future of Warm Springs Resort has been up in the air since May, when East Boise County residents narrowly rejected the creation of a taxing district to lease and later buy the once-popular recreation site.
The vote was 450 to 435 — a testament to the value that many area residents see in the springs, where 19th century miners once bathed and generations of Idahoans learned to swim.
After downsizing his plans several times, owner Jesse Pearson was unable to get $1 million in financing for the 80-acre site about 1.5 miles southwest of Idaho City just off Idaho 21.
“It was just impossible to get money, absolutely impossible,” said project manager Wyatt Sharpley in a phone interview from his home in Hawaii. “We kind of gave up.”
But they haven’t given up on the idea. In fact, Sharpley said Pearson’s family has come together and pooled their money to provide some capital for the project — as much as $1 million.
“We have the first installment of the loan that’s going to allow us to re-open,” Sharpley said, which could be as soon as this summer.
They have begun prepping the site for upgrades over the winter, possibly drilling a well to optimize the use of geothermal water. In the spring, they plan to refurbish the pool, build decks, add lockers and hire people. “We’re going to have tons of decks all around the pool for eating and sunning and relaxing,” Sharpley said.
Sharpley said Pearson has not publicized his latest efforts to re-open Warm Springs because he doesn’t want to get residents’ hopes up. If economic conditions deteriorate significantly in the spring, he may have to shelve the project.
The resort was shut down in 2001 because of septic system failure, and that remains one of the biggest roadblocks. Sharpley said the system has been assessed, and is in better shape than previously thought. He said it can be used in the short-term; the extension of city sewer to the site is the long-term solution.
Because the area has been designated as a brownfield, the city may be able to obtain grants to help fund the extension of the sewer system.
“We’re willing to put money into the process, too, for a pump station at the end of the line,” Sharpley said.
FOR SALE: THIS OLD HOUSE — IN PIECES
As part of the fall prep work, Warm Springs Resort project manager Wyatt Sharpley is removing a house at the site that dates back to the turn of the century — but which is not deemed to have great historical significance. Posters went up around Idaho City and ads went up on Craigslist offering the building free.
It ended up going to Mike Brown, president and CEO of Eagle-based Diamond B Group Inc., a general contractor with licensed architects. The company’s bread-and-butter has been building and renovating hotels and restaurants nationwide.
Brown, a 58-year-old who is the fourth generation of a construction family, is interested in making it a LEED-certified project, reusing as much of the original house as possible in new construction.
Brown said the house will be disassembled piece by piece over the next couple of months and a blueprint will be created of the original house — in case the future owner wants to re-create the original at another location.
Brown — who is looking for a buyer for the house — says the lumber is “phenomenal.”
“It’s far superior to anything you would buy today,” he said, describing straight, 20-foot-long planks that were cut 100 years ago.
Brown said his crew is going to salvage everything it can from the two-story, 4,000-square-foot house; he estimates that he can build a 3,500-square-foot house with what’s useable.
“We’re investing a lot of time and money on a gamble,” said Brown, adding that he and his wife will rebuild the house along Idaho 21 if no one else comes foward to buy it.
Anyone interested may contact Brown through his company Web site: www.diamondbgroup.net.
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