Calgary Herald - Developer Puts Together Pieces of Land "Puzzle"

July 5, 2008

Developer Puts Together Piece of Land "Puzzle"

 

Just who is the man behind the rock? The Black Rock empire, that is.

 

Marshall Chesrown is the guiding hand behind Black Rock Developments - which, with at least seven projects, is one of the largest residential land developers in the Coeur d'Alene/Sandpoint area.

 

The dynamic entrepreneur started in the residential land development field less than a decade a go with the golf course and residential community of The Club at Black Rock on the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene - now one of the most prestigious and exclusive developments in the Inland Northwest.

 

"And I don’t even play golf," says Chesrown. "But when I started looking at other clubs, I thought that Coeur d'Alene could use something like this, so I built the golf course and clubhouse first to show the commitment of the developer to the project."

 

That forward-thinking mentality has taken the hometown boy far in life.

 

"I grew up in Spokane and spent summers at the lake, and later owned a home on the lake. I could never figure out why this area had not grown like Sun Valley or Lake Tahoe," says Chesrown.

 

"With any piece of the puzzle, there’s a lifestyle checklist, and this area has it."

 

The beautiful lake setting with all its opportunities, the rural atmosphere with the western heritage, and the anonymity provided to those who might come were all factors that Chesrown knew would attract people - and it has.

 

The Club at Black Rock has grown in size and prestige, and Chesrown's empire now has more than half a dozen different developments, including the latest Kendall Yards in downtown Spokane, which will become a large urban village on the river.

 

Not bad for a man who started out as a jazz musician, playing the saxophone.

 

"After high school, I got a music scholarship to the ArizonaStateUniversity."

 

But along the way, he took his motorcycle, his saxophone and the $120 in his pocket, and headed west to earn some money.

 

"I met a fellow who convinced me to try selling cars at his dealership. In 75 days, I made $19,000 and, as the radio personality Paul Harvey says, that’s the rest of the story."

 

He didn't go to university, but instead, ended up in the car business in a big way, eventually owning close to a dozen dealerships, which he later sold to AutoNation - a revolutionary new way to sell cars that Florida billionaire Wayne Huizenga started in the mid 1990s.

 

But his heart was at home.

 

"I used to come up here (the site of The Club at Black Rock) when I had the cabin on the lake. It was the property of the grandfather of a family friend, and I heard that the land was (for sale).

 

"I was bored and decided to buy it, and I started acquiring more land around it."

 

Eventually, the vision for the golf course became a reality - and that is the rest of the story, which continues to grow from there.