Coeur d’Alene Resort marks 40 years, reshaped city identity

About 20,000 people lined up for hours to tour the Coeur d’Alene Resort before its first guests arrived in May 1986, a scene that captured how improbable the project seemed in a city many outsiders still saw as a lake town with limited reach. Forty years later, the property says it has welcomed more than 10 million guests and booked about 3.6 million room nights, turning a once-questioned idea into one of North Idaho’s most visible business landmarks.

The anniversary is more than nostalgia for a hotel lobby. It is a ledger of how one lakefront property helped redefine downtown Coeur d’Alene, bring in visitors by the thousands, and anchor a hospitality economy that now stretches far beyond Sherman Avenue. Bill Reagan, the resort’s president, called the 40-year mark deeply meaningful, while longtime employees such as Rick Powers and concierge director Donna Gable have become part of the resort’s identity just as much as the building itself.

That longevity matters because the opening was not easy. Powers recalled a recruitment push that drew 8,700 applications for 550 food and beverage jobs, underscoring how much labor it took to launch a destination of this scale. The resort’s early room rates reportedly ran from $40 to $99, with luxury penthouses far above that range, a reminder that it was built from the start as an upscale bet on tourism in Kootenai County.

The property’s history reaches back even further. The North Shore Resort opened in 1965, its seven-story tower was completed in 1973, and Hagadone Hospitality acquired the property in 1983 before the renovated resort reopened under a new name in 1986. The Hagadone Corporation says it was founded in 1976 by Duane B. Hagadone in Coeur d’Alene. Duane Hagadone, who died in 2021, became the figure most closely associated with the broader vision that helped push the resort and the surrounding lakefront development into national attention.

The resort is still changing the downtown landscape. Its anniversary materials emphasize a refreshed front entry and the next phase of growth, including Sherman Tower, a 15-story addition planned to add 139 rooms, about 200 jobs, a 6,000-square-foot restaurant with a seasonal rooftop bar, and nearly 4,000 square feet of retail and office space. When complete, the property will have 477 guest rooms. The tower’s grand opening is targeted for May 2027.

That is the real measure of the resort’s 40 years: not just the guests it has hosted, but the jobs it has created, the skyline it has altered, and the role it has carved into Coeur d’Alene’s identity. What began as a bold gamble on the edge of Lake Coeur d’Alene has become one of the clearest symbols of how downtown was remade.