ISSUE 114
NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2021
@home
WITH COLDWELL BANKER TOMLINSON
1992
2005
Liberty Lake, WA
Remembering Bill Main: His Vision Is Our Reality
T
here are no two ways about it; Spokane, City and County, are on the national radar.
Realtor.com, which should know, has declared our community the tenth most active real estate market in the country, due largely to its “quality of life.” That quality is due in part to the natural attributes of the area, but also very much to the vision and energy of the real estate developers who have made the most of those attributes in their design of the residential and commercial opportunities that are drawing Bill Main residents and businesses from all over the world. Among those developers, none has left a more positive and more lasting mark than Bill Main (1928-2018). All who knew him miss his enthusiasm and his optimism, which shone about him like superpowers. In the late 1970s, Bill Main Sr. and his son, Bill Jr. saw the potential of an "urban village" tucked in Spokane County's easternmost corner. While Liberty Lake was seen by most as a collection of waterfront homes, a single gas station and sweeping fields hedged up against an interstate highway, the Mains imagined a walkable, mixed-use community featuring nourishing trails, parks and well-built homes. "Bill Sr. was a visionary," says Jim Frank, founder of Greenstone Homes and former business partner of the Mains. "He had some great ideas about land use. The original concept of Meadowwood, which we eventually built out, was the concept that Bill initially had." Bill Sr. founded Main Realty in 1959, eventually broadening the company into residential development and construction. The business became a one-stop development shop, platting nondescript land, building the homes and marketing the
properties. Over the course of decades, Main Realty would develop thousands of lots in Washington, Idaho and Montana, including well-known Spokane neighborhoods like Suncrest, Shiloh Hills and Camelot. Having earned a degree in business, Bill Jr. joined his father in pursuing their notion of Liberty Lake in the midst of an economic downturn, overcoming apathy from more than a few lenders before finally securing support from SeaFirst Bank and, later, major financing from Alaska Mutual Bank and, finally, the support of Hewlett Packard, which proved a tipping point. The Mains' mixed-use concept is familiar to anyone who has visited Liberty Lake: a retail center, business district and residential development blended into a pedestrian friendly community with plenty of green space. At the time, however, their vision was nothing short of revolutionary. Their visit to the HP Stanford Park campus in Palo Alto snapped it into sharp focus, and provided the financial impetus to move ahead. HP would be the first commercial tenant in the Liberty Lake area, paving the way for other high-tech businesses like Telect and Itron. High interest rates had a dampening effect on development until the early 1990s, when residential and commercial projects began emerging in Liberty Lake and throughout Spokane County. Still, growth in the area was slow. Regardless, Bill Main Sr’s indomitable energy and optimism powered through all resistance, mowing down timidity and mediocrity in their path. In place of a statue or a plaque, his monument is the gratitude and joy felt not only by the residents of Liberty Lake, but by everyone in the region, proud that their community sports such a jewel in its crown. Based on original reporting by Craig Howard, and published by his kind permission and that of Ben Wick, current publisher of The Liberty Lake Splash, and Mayor of Liberty Lake.