Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Construction on the homes in the Edgewater development at Foster Lake should be finished this year, and the developers are planning to go to work on the new RV park and the marina this year if everything works as planned.
Edgewater is the lakeside development by Foster Lake Investments going in on the corner of 60th Avenue and Highway 20.
Construction will start on the final two units on the lake side of the development, developer Dan McGarry said. The final three units are located on the highway side of the development, and those will be completed later this year.
“Hopefully, by the end of May, we’ll have everything completed lakeside as far as landscaping,” McGarry said. He is landscaping the public land between the development and Foster Lake.
Five of the completed units have been sold, McGarry said. Two are available, but they have drawn a lot of interest recently.
“I’m really excited to build the next two because they’re so big,” he said. The final two units are the largest in the project, the biggest measuring 3,052 square feet with five bedrooms and a large family room. “That’s going to be the best one.”
Prices have been in the $465,000 to $475,000 range, he said. Some sold for a little less, but last August, Foster Lake Investments had a literal bidding war going, with three or four people sending offers to McGarry.
By the end of the year, McGarry should be well into the construction of the RV park, he said. Foster Lake Investments is still negotiating the final conditions on the marina with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which controls Foster Lake.
He is about ready to go to work on it pending approval, he said. All that’s left to get ready are some minor engineering on the anchoring system. The proposed marina will not use pilings.
Rather, it will use large concrete blocks dropped like anchors with a system of bungee-like cords attaching the docks.
McGarry estimates the cost at $1.1 million.
“It’s very interesting,” McGarry said. “We’re going to be one of the first ones to use it in the Northwest.”
The docks will float, rise and sink with the level of the lake without the difficulties associated with using pilings. More than half of the docks will float throughout the year.
Right off the docks, he is planning to build a restroom and a concessions stand.
“We want to do the two hand-in-hand,” McGarry said, but “the RV park will probably be in before the marina.”
If he can reach agreement with the Corps, he would like to go to work on the dock in the fall, giving him time to do work the Corps may want but leaving time to finish the marina right before the beginning of the boating season in spring 2008.
Foster Lake Investment’s work is going to include improvements on the bench along that part of the lake, a popular public swimming area. Along the edge of the lake, the rip-rap will be filled in with smaller, smooth, round rocks to make swimming there more comfortable on the feet. The grassy bench itself also will be filled and leveled.
The final building in the project, a convenience store, restaurant and residence, is planned for construction in 2008. It will be located with the RV park on the property west of 60th Avenue, which replaced Foster Dam Road.
That part of the project will have a parking lot built around the existing trees as much as possible with a chalet style structure housing the store, restaurant and residence. The roof will appear much like those on the townhouses across the street.
The first floor will be a “convenience store light,” with a tackle shop and a ski and water sports shop. The restaurant will be on the second floor, with a residence built above that, where McGarry plans to live.
The building will be 24,000 square feet and cost about $9 million to build. With the RV park, that part of the project will cost about $11 million.
Foster Lake Investments includes McGarry, Steve Leith and Dennis Gibson. McGarry’s construction company, LND Construction, is the majority interest holder. Leith and Gibson are investment partners. All three live in the Corvallis-Philomath area.