Polson development billed a success

It’s been 15 years since Polson’s Mission Bay partnership began with piles of dirt and the promise of a first-class development.

The idea was a unique public/private venture when the project launched in 1996. Developers Dennis Duty and Tim Hinderman of Northwest Holdings LLC donated 75 acres of prized waterfront property on Flathead Lake to the city of Polson so the city could build an additional nine-hole golf course.

Duty and Hinderman, in turn, developed the Mission Bay residential community on the surrounding 51 acres. They say the project came together through the years just as they thought it would.

“It came together as envisioned,” said Hinderman, who grew up in Whitefish and lives there. “The arrangement with the golf course has turned out to a letter as we both anticipated. It’s been a long and good relationship” with the city of Polson.

The city integrated its nine new holes into the existing eastside nine holes built in 1988, expanding Polson Country Club — as it was then called — from an 18-hole course to 27 holes. The original “Olde Nine” built in the 1930s as a federal Works Progress Administration project became a stand-alone course.

The new nine at Polson Bay Golf Course, which opened in 1999, allowed the city to showcase lakefront fairways and greens and spectacular views of Flathead Lake and the Swan and Mission mountains.

“Our goal has always been to provide the highest quality recreational experience in the Flathead Valley at the lowest price,” longtime golf course head professional Roger Wallace said. “We offered that in 1996 and we’re still providing it in 2011.”

The maverick public/private project wasn’t without its challenges, the developers recalled.

First the city had to agree to sell bonds and take on another $1.6 million in debt for course construction and equipment.

“Second was working out all the details with how the golf course would complement the existing nine holes and not feel like a real estate development walling in the golf holes,” Hinderman said. “That was a big concern, not having every fairway lined with homes.”

The end result was a pod approach — pods of golf set apart from pods of real estate.

“We didn’t have a clue how long it would take to develop,” Hinderman said.

As it turned out, they were able to develop about 90 percent of the initial project in the first 10 years.

To date, 204 of 210 homesites in Mission Bay have been sold, and 103 single-family homes have been built there along with some townhomes.

The project later included the development of Mission Bay Preserve on 285 adjoining acres. By clustering homesites in the preserve, about 150 acres were permanently protected as part of a wildlife and wetland preserve, Duty said. Some 63 of 77 available homesites in the preserve have been sold; 14 homes have been built in the preserve.

A third and final phase of the project is Mission Bay Village, the result of a joint venture with a neighboring property owner on 20 acres extending to Montana 35. That area is geared to townhomes and smaller single-family bungalows that will have a 1930s craftsman design, Duty said.

The Polson City Council granted preliminary plat approval for 66 units, but Duty doesn’t see Mission Bay Village building out to capacity.

“We’ll have to see what happens with the economy and what people are wanting,” he said.

Mission Bay didn’t escape the clutches of the housing downturn that resulted from one of America’s worst recessions.

“2009 was a challenge. Everything just quit,” Duty said. “2010 was somewhat better and 2011 is showing improvement. The lakeshore is a leader for us, and if that moves it’s an indicator” that the housing market is improving.

Mission Bay real estate took a nosedive in value as a result of the recession, he added, but that has allowed more buyers from the Flathead and Missoula markets to vie for homes that allow owners to “play on the lake.”

Two custom homes were completed in the Mission Bay complex last year and two are under construction this year, one in the preserve and the other in Mission Bay Village.

“We’re grateful to have stuff under construction,” Duty said.

The recent recession wasn’t the only challenge for the Mission Bay developers. Hinderman remembers the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the East Coast that stymied development for a time.

“Nine-eleven was a time when people stopped and took a deep breath,” he said. “There was no way to anticipate [that downturn]. But when it came back, it came back with a vengeance.”

Duty manages the development’s Mission Bay Realty as a licensed broker and is actively selling lots in both the preserve and Mission Bay Village. Hinderman said he still travels to Polson once a week to keep his hand in the development.

While the men are pleased personally with the way Mission Bay has been developed, they’re also happy with how the golf community and preserve — valued at more than $50 million — have benefited Polson and Lake County.

“The term ‘a win-win situation’ is often used to describe an ideal deal,” Hinderman said.

Mission Bay, they agreed, has been a “win-win.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.