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06/01/2007
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| [Vacation Life] |
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| New developments in the wide-open spaces of Idaho. |
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Norman Rockwell’s famous painting Going and Coming depicts one family in two
different states of mind—excitement and anticipation on their way to the lake
and exhaustion and contentment on their return. These emotions are what the
Discovery Land Company hopes to stir in the souls of buyers who come to Gozzer
Ranch. The developer of high-end golf and residential communities chooses
locations for its new communities by following the travels of Lewis and Clark’s
Corps of Discovery, an expeditionary group who explored the uncharted West in
the early 1800s.
With lower-priced land and room to roam, Idaho is a developer’s dream. Gozzer
Ranch is a 650-acre community on Lake Coeur d’Alene
with a Tom Fazio golf course. Bottom photograph by Bryan Firestone Photography. (Click images to enlarge)
While Lewis and Clark spent more than 100 days in Idaho,
Discovery Land has decided to settle in for good, launching a new project in
northern Idaho that mixes Tom Fazio–designed golf with lakeside living. “It’s
the lake that attracted us to Coeur d’Alene,” says Steve Adelson, a partner in
the company. “The town is Rockwellian—there’s the parade, the kids and the face
painting on the Fourth of July.” Like the artist’s iconic painting, Gozzer Ranch
will embrace the lake lifestyle, offering a slew of recreational and social
activities that cater to families.
The gated community sits on a 650-acre
bluff overlooking the 109-mile-round Lake Coeur d’Alene and will encompass 274
homesites ranging in size from one to four acres (priced from $300,000 to $1.5
million). In addition to the lots, Discovery Land will build 158 homes ranging
from four- to six-bedroom cabins (priced from $1.5 million to $2.2 million),
three- and four-bedroom homestead cottages (priced from $1.4 million to $1.7
million), and waterfront condominiums (priced from $1 million to $6
million).
Named for bachelor rancher John Gozzer, the development will
preserve Gozzer’s spirit for posterity by incorporating wood from his original
homestead into some of its community buildings, such as the clubhouse, which
will hold a spa, fitness center, boutique, tennis garden and pool. The
restaurant is already up and running. Two private marinas will accommodate
watercraft and a lake lodge will serve as the center for water activities. “The
lake becomes an integral part of your life when you live here,” says Adelson.
Car rides to town have been replaced by water rides aboard Gozzer’s 36-foot
mahogany Stan-Craft boat.
This 3,700-square-foot model home at River Rim Ranch is available for $2.6
million. (Click images to enlarge)
With a population of around 38,000, Coeur d’Alene
is small-town nirvana for vacation home owners who come mainly from large West
Coast cities. But those in search of more privacy are discovering McCall, a tiny
town in west-central Idaho with a population of 2,100. “McCall is what I imagine
Lake Tahoe was like years ago,” says Mike Hart, a partner in River Ranch, a
458-acre development of 64 homesites along a two mile–plus stretch of the
Payette River. An alpine lake with a white-sand beach, hundreds of inches of
snow annually, two ski resorts and millions of acres of preserved land are
indeed reminiscent of Lake Tahoe. “But McCall is still in its early stage of
evolution,” says Hart. “One without traffic.”
At River Ranch, the developers
linked their trails with the city bike path to encourage residents to ride
rather than drive to town. Hart and business partner Judd DeBoer, who owns the
nearby Brundage Mountain resort, both have personal connections to McCall,
having spent their childhoods vacationing here. “We anticipate that our members
will really enjoy a private club at Brundage,” says Hart.
Like Gozzer, the
land at River Ranch is a former farm, and Hart and DeBoer are returning it to
its prefarming state by contouring the land and replenishing the forest. “We
planted 3,500 fully grown trees and have another 2,000 ordered,” says Hart. Home
sites at River Ranch (priced from $495,000 to $850,000) range in size from
four to 10 acres, but architectural guidelines do not allow homes of more than
10,000 square feet or those that do not incorporate a mountain ranch style. “You
will not see a reproduction of someone’s Palm Beach estate here,” says Hart.
“I’ve seen that in Tahoe.”
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 Desert Song
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Front Elevation: Anguilla
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Mission Statement
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A Very Stately Pleasure Dome
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Living Large
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