Archive for the ‘Area Press’ Category

Posted on February 10, 2010 - by Blackhawk Staff Writer

Blackhawk footage featured in McCall Chamber Ad Campaign

Blackhawk on the River’s incredible winter recreation and scenery has been noticed! Video footage of Blackhawk has been used to create a stunning ad campaign designed to highlight the abundance of winter recreation found in McCall, ID by the McCall Chamber of Commerce.

Posted on September 19, 2009 - by mckenzie

Blackhawk to be featured in NewWest.net conference Oct 11th

On October 12th and 13th, NewWest.Net will present its 4th annual Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies conference. As the premiere business event in the region, Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies will feature a rich mix of presentations, discussions and networking opportunities, all designed to advance our understanding of the economic forces shaping our region and provide practical advice on how to navigate the changing market.

As part of this unique gathering of prominent developers, financiers, government officials, real estate agents, architects, attorneys, journalists and non-profit leaders from around the region, Blackhawk on the River will be hosting a pre-conference tour for conference-goers. This special one-day tour will feature Brundage Mountain Resort and Blackhawk on the River in educating industry leaders about the conservation efforts by McCall’s developers. Below is an overview of the event:

Idaho’s Open Space and Conservation Development
The Northern Rockies are known for incredible landscapes, and honoring this through ecologically sensitive conservation development is one of the most important trends to emerge over the last decade. Blackhawk on the River, near McCall, Idaho, is one project that shows how this can be done. Join this 2-day tour for a chance to experience first-hand this conservation-based development, walk the property, and discuss over an evening campfire and dinner with the local conservationists about how it all fits together. A tour of a new conservation development project at the nearby Brundage Mountain ski resort is also included. This tour includes meals, deluxe accommodations at Blackhawk, and optional transport to/from Missoula. Departs at 8am on Sunday Oct. 11th, returns at 4pm on Monday, Oct. 12th.

If you would like more information about attending this pre-conference event and/or attending the NewWest.net Conference in October, please click here for the NewWest website or go directly to the conference schedule page to read about this special tour in McCall!

Posted on January 27, 2009 - by Blackhawk Staff Writer

Read About Us In Mccall Magazine

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McCall Magazine details the history of Blackhawk, highlights conservation efforts, and touches on recreational opportunities. Here’s a brief clipping from author Doug Copsey in the winter/spring 2009 edition:

At Blackhawk, winter is no time to hunker down indoors. The wagon rides of summer become sleigh rides, so you can get out and enjoy the beauty of Blackhawk under its customary blanket of snow; and for the more active, 12 kilometers of Nordic skiing trails criss-cross the property.

If you prefer to ski downhill, Blackhawk is almost exactly halfway between Brundage Mountain and Tamarack Resort-just a short 12 mile drive either way gets you to some of the best alpine skiing anywhere in the Northwest.

Blackhawk is a community that has to be seen to be appreciated. It literally has everything an outdoor enthusiast could want, from white sandy beaches along the river to dense forests and wetlands teeming with wildlife, even a natural hot springs just down the road.

Note: McCall Magazine is a semi-annual publication that explores the history, culture, activities and lifestyle that make McCall the newest resort location of the west.

Please send us an email if you would like a complimentary copy of this magazine mailed to you along with information about Blackhawk on the River real estate in McCall, Idaho.

Or visit the online edition here.

Posted on November 12, 2008 - by Editor

Find Your Own Private Idaho, McCall Featured in Sunset Magazine

FIND YOUR OWN PRIVATE IDAHO
Move over, Sun Valley. McCall is the new great adventure town
by Laura Stavoe

Steam hovers over the large, transparent pool at Burgdorf Hot Springs, 32 miles north of McCall. It’s a rainy morning, and we’ve opted for these primitive springs as the perfect way to kick off our vacation. We’ve driven from town into the mountains, past quiet lakes still surrounded by snow, following rivers and creeks through corridors of spruce and fir to a lonely dirt lot. A wild-breed turkey has waddled over to greet us, followed by a caretaker who sports a tangled gray beard down to his sternum.

My twin 12-year-old sons, Dylan and Gabe, and my husband, John, and I are the only ones here. We soak in a vintage Idaho scene: horses grazing in the meadow beneath soft rain, cabins leaning into the tall grasses, the northern Rockies surrounding all of it. The boys take turns balancing, surfer-style, on an old kayak someone left at water’s edge, as John and I slowly sink into water heated by the earth to 113°, thinking, Yes, this is exactly the kind of luxury we had in mind.

I let out a sigh of relief. Because — and here is my confession — I expected, on this trip back to McCall, to be disappointed. Having read the press about McCall’s big growth spurt brought on by the opening of Tamarack Resort in 2004, I expected to find my old beloved mountain town, two hours north of Boise, transformed into something fancy and generic. Despite Tamarack’s recent financial woes, its development opened the flood-gates to sushi, spas, better cell phone coverage, and all the trappings of every other mountain resort town. I wondered and worried that McCall might not still be McCall.

THE LAKE, AND A RACE TO REMEMBER

I did not fall immediately in love with Idaho when I moved to Boise from Southern California in 1990, but my first visit to McCall sped up the process considerably. I had entered the McCall Mountain Triathlon, and as a friend and I made the drive from Boise into Idaho’s central mountains, she prepped me, “It’s gorgeous — the forest, the lake, the mountains — all of it … ”

The race was small town. A hundred or so athletes picked up packets at Lardo’s, a bar and burger joint. Just after dawn, we ran into the icy water of Payette Lake and submerged ourselves in beauty. Each time I reached for a breath, the sight of spectacular granite peaks over the water surprised me. The cycling leg took us along a ponderosa-lined road where I spotted whitetail deer among the trees. Then we ran on dirt trails until the course looped back toward town, where locals cheered us on from the backs of pickups. I didn’t win. (Probably all that nature-ogling.) But my friend was right. I was smitten.

Eighteen years, two Idaho native sons, and dozens of McCall visits later, it’s clear it was no passing crush.

The skies have cleared, and the boys and John and I lounge on the patio of Bistro 45, a locals’ wine bar and cafe with a super-casual vibe and retro board games for the borrowing. It’s one of a handful of restaurants in McCall’s tiny downtown, a cluster of shops and hotels right on the lake and less than 2 miles from spectacular Ponderosa State Park. If anything has changed downtown, I think to myself, it’s so subtle I don’t mind at all.

When our sandwiches come, Gabe, who has heard my triathlon story a hundred times, suggests we do our own version. “Burgdorf counts as the swim,” he says.

John says, “We should take the chairlift and bike down Tamarack mountain.” I’m in. We’ll top it all off with a river paddle, I suggest, as the third leg of the race. No one argues. We all carbo-load on grilled panini.

THE MOUNTAIN

The next day, we check into a cottage at Tamarack Resort. We’re here to find out what The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have been so excited about, why Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf were inspired to pony up funds for a planned hotel here, and — more recently — how the ambitious resort has had to scale back its plans in the face of a hurting economy. We stand atop Tamarack mountain, feeling out of our league. The steep slope disappears into a pile of boulders and then who knows what. John asks the question on all of our minds. “People ride down this?”

A man pedals past us and then drops off the ledge. The wheels of his muddy bike hopscotch from one boulder to the next. John reaches in his pocket for the trail map. At dinner the night before, we were certain we were a “blue” family — not mountain-biking experts, but relatively fit, and gutsy, Idahoans. Certainly we could handle blue-designated terrain. Now John points us to the “greenie” run, and we follow. I make generous use of my brakes.

Waterfalls rush down gulches lined with spruce, fir, and the signature tamarack, and the air is pungent with the scent of recently melted earth. As I careen down the trail, much of the scenery turns into a vibrating blur, but up ahead the boys wait for me where the forest opens. On one side rises the incline of the Payette River Range. On the other lie the curve of Lake Cascade and the Salmon River Mountains beyond the valley. I’m reminded of how huge this rugged country is, and how many mountains are beyond the ones I can see.

That night we dine on seared elk medallions and delicate scallops at Morels Restaurant — it’s hard to object to fancy new restaurants where the food is as good as this — then soak our battered muscles in the hot tub on our resort cabin’s deck while staring up at the crisp starlight, grateful for clear skies. In the mountains, you never know what season June will be, and tomorrow we take to the river for our final leg of the “race.”

THE RIVER

Thousands of miles of whitewater tumble down from the central Idaho mountains, so it’s no wonder my boys have ridden far more rapids than roller coasters in their lifetime. Today Dylan sits in front of me in a double ducky (an inflatable kayak for two) on our favorite day trip, the Cabarton stretch of the Payette River. We love this stretch because the current slips away from the road and into lush forest, offering a sense of solitude that’s rare on a day trip anywhere.

On past Cabarton trips, Dylan has been in the raft, and we’re both aware that just around the next bend is Trestle, the longest class III rapid of the trip. As we curve around the canyon wall, the railroad bridge spanning the river comes into view and the current quickens. “Hole is on the left?” Dylan asks in a dry, whispery voice.

“You paddle hard, and I’ll steer,” I answer. There’s a glassy pool after the rapid, but June is not ideal swimming weather.

For a moment, the calm clarity of our plan is lost in the chaotic force of white-water and adrenaline, but then Dylan plunges his paddle into each huge wave just as it’s about to overwhelm us, as if he were a pro. I’m relieved when, out of the corner of my eye, I see the gaping reversal slip by.

“That was huge,” Dylan yells. And we laugh as the final waves lift and then release us. We all pull onto a sandy beach where we rehash our various versions of surviving the Trestle Rapid.

After our picnic on the shore, the boys toss stones in the river, and John and I lie on warm boulders looking for eagles and listening to the rush of the rapid. I recall the post-race high I used to feel back during my triathlon days, thinking, This beats it by a mile. An orange raft from the outfitting company rounds the corner carrying another family. We wave to one another as boaters always do on rivers — kids, parents, river guide — all of us wearing that particular aren’t-we-so-lucky-to-be-here grin. And I notice that even though McCall now has fancy restaurants and spas and plush hotel rooms with lake views, I’m happy to share this big, wild place that really does still feel like home.

[From Sunset Magazine, June 2008]

Posted on November 5, 2007 - by Editor

Recent Trends In The Vacation-Home Market

McCall, Idaho

Recently released statistics by the National Association of Realtors show that sales of second-home vacation properties continue to set record levels, with 1.07 million closed transactions in 2006 . This is the fourth consecutive year of an upward trend in this market segment, with 850,000 in 2003 and 1.02 million in both 2004 and 2005. This trend continues despite the decline in both investment properties and primary residence sales in 2006. “Vacation-home buyers are making lifestyle choices and purchasing for their own enjoyment; investment-home buyers are seeking rental income and portfolio diversification” said David Lereah, Chief Economist for NAR.

New lending programs are being introduced to further satisfy the demand created by the second-home market. Lot loans are now available to multi-million dollar levels, with limited documentation and no-verification programs, and programs for investment properties and refinances. Construction loans are also being tailored to this market, the most popular being one-close loans based on appraised value, and including closing costs and interest reserves.

The newer property types are becoming increasingly popular in resort settings. Lending sources are now available for fractional ownership properties, bringing traditional loan programs to what has previously been a cash-buyers market.

Taken from Mountain Mortgage’s Fall 2007 Newsletter

Posted on January 16, 2007 - by Editor

Blackhawk Sets the Bar for Other McCall Projects

From The Star-News Editorial Opinion Column

It is easy for land developers to promise their buyers open space as an amenity for the future. Those developers will deventually go away, however, after which the future of the open space is thrown into doubt. The developers of Blackhawk, however, have decided to carve their pledge into stone, and they should be commended for it.

The Blackhawk development is now underway five miles south of McCall along a scenic stretch of the North Fork of the Payette River. In return for buying a lot or home, customers are promised a variety of “extras,” such as an equestrian center, community lodge, hiking and biking trails, and groomed Nordic ski trails. Those are all well and good, but over time an equestrian center can fall into disrepair, a community center can be converted into a mansion and sold, and maintenance of trails can wither away due to neglect. These are the risks of buying into a so-called planned development, in that the maintenance of the amenities is largely up to the homeowners once the project sells out.

Not so with tbe Blackhawk Wildlife Preserve, which totals 152 acres of the project’s 1551 acres total and stretches nearly two miles along the North Fork of the Payette River. The promise of leaving these acres as pristine habitat for wildlife is not made with fingers crossed, but in writing and in partnership with the Payette Land Trust. The Blackhawk developers have signed a legal and binding agreement with the trust placing the land into a conservation easement, which means there is nothing they or their successors can do to take it back.

Of course, the motivation to set aside the land for wildlife habitat is not entirely alturistic. Much of the land cannot be built upon due to wetlands and flood plains. And, the developers receive a substantial tax break for their action. Nevertheless, Blackhawk is the first large project in Valley County to draw a line around part of their land and declare it off-limits forever. It is a grand gesture and should serve as a challenge to those now building planned communities in the region and others who are contemplating such projects.

Posted on December 22, 2006 - by Editor

McCall, Idaho Featured in The New York Times

McCall, Idaho–The Friday, December 22, 2006 edition of The New York Times featured McCall, Idaho, as a “Haven” in the Real Estate section.

The article highlights McCall’s transition into the West’s next up-and-coming resort community, “often compared to the Sun Valley of 20 to 30 years ago, when it was a small ski resort.”

McCall is now attracting homebuyers from across the country to its easy to access recreation, uncrowded ski resorts and small town atmosphere, the article goes on to say.

In describing McCall, The New York Times writes:

“This is the kind of place where you can shop in boutique furniture stores or check email messages at coffee shops that have wireless Internet access even as a logging truck weighed down with a load of pines as broad as barrels downshifts to take the curve on Highway 55…Whether on skis, a snowboard, snowshoes or a snowmobile, people come to McCall in winter to play outdoors.”

Read the full article.

Posted on July 12, 2006 - by Editor

Blackhawk and McCall, ID, featured in Sunset magazine

McCall, Idaho–The Blackhawk community and McCall, Idaho, have been featured in the August 2006 edition of Sunset magazine in an article titled “Where to buy now: The West’s most popular places to find your second home.”

McCall was one of only 10 locations across the Western U.S. selected as a prime second home destination, and the only Idaho location mentioned. Furthermore, Blackhawk was the only McCall-area residential community singled out in the article.

“We scouted around for our top 10 hot vacation-home spots. Our criteria? A growing second-home market, great recreational opportunities, relative affordability (the median price of a vacation home was $204,000 in 2005, according to NAR), and a small-town lifestyle, from art galleries to coffeehouses and farmers’ markets,” the article explained.

In describing McCall, the magazine writes:

“With nearly 2500 residents and access to world-class rafting, fly-fishing and two nearby ski resorts, McCall is an alternative to better-known and more expensive Sun Valley. Mike Anderson of McCall Real Estate Company says prices in McCall range from $200,000 to $11 million. In Blackhawk, an environmentally aware development situated along the Payette River, homesites start at less than $200,000.”

“We’re pleased that Sunset recognized all that McCall and Blackhawk have to offer,” said Blackhawk chief financial officer Rick Luna. “We’re honored to be mentioned in one of our favorite publications.”

Sunset magazine is a leading lifestyle publication with a subscriber base of 1.3 million readers, covering home, garden, food and travel in the 11 western states.

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Posted on June 28, 2006 - by Editor

Announcing McCall's Only Equestrian Center at Blackhawk

McCall, Idaho–Valley County’s only equestrian center is now open at the Blackhawk community in McCall. The 40-acre, Blackhawk Equestrian Center currently operates from two recently renovated onsite barns with 13 horses, including two fillies born on May 17th. Construction is complete on a new 150-by-200-foot outdoor riding arena and 50 foot round pen.

Blackhawk will host an equine event-filled weekend for the public on July 8th and 9th to introduce the center to the McCall community and celebrate recent additions. Activities include a free catered barbeque, along with free trail rides and youth riding lessons that can be scheduled by calling (208) 634-6774.

“McCall has always been a spectacular area for horseback riding, but an equestrian center has been a much-needed missing component,” says Rick Luna, CFO of Blackhawk Partners LLC. “All of us at Blackhawk are extremely pleased to see the Equestrian Center come to life. Horse lovers who live in the area should find it a real asset.”

The Blackhawk Equestrian Center is located at the south end of the 1551-acre residential community. Construction on the center’s permanent buildings and other facilities will begin within two years. At completion, the center will consist of an indoor and outdoor arena, including multiple areas to honor western, dressage, reigning and English riding, along with alternative aspects of riding. In addition, there will be a round pen and boarding facilities for Blackhawk residents.

The new arena and round pen will be available to Blackhawk residents, potential buyers, and guests.

Miles of riverside and forested trails exclusively designated for horseback riding will also traverse the Blackhawk property, connecting to hundreds of miles of Forest Service trails just across West Mountain Road. A corresponding trail system on the Blackhawk property will be reserved for hiking and mountain biking.

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