A bookstore closed. Longtime restaurants too. What the Treasure Valley lost in 2018
They’re gone now, but for many Treasure Valley dwellers, they’re not forgotten. Longtime businesses and other icons closed in 2018. Here are 12.
Boise restaurant to close after 36 years, meaning a California chain is leaving Idaho
Tons of restaurant chains expand into Boise to get their piece of the pie. But it was bye, bye Marie Callendar pie, at least on Fairview Avenue.
Another endangered Boise icon is listed for sale, and the neighbors are worried
The controversy over this one echoes a growing number of skirmishes throughout the Valley as development races to adjust to the region’s growth. In this follow-up story, the buyers said they plan to convert the historic building to condominiums.
Final chapter arrives for this Downtown Boise bookstore. All books 75 percent off
The signs announced the end of yet another small business in Boise’s rapidly changing Downtown: “The Sinking Ship Sale! 75% off EVERYTHING.”
Another Downtown bookstore was destined for closure. Then these buyers called.
For book lovers, the approaching end of Trip Taylor Booksellers was bad enough. Downtown Boise’s three bookstores would soon become two. But as the news of Taylor’s going-out-of-business sale spread, a second of the three stores was being offered for sale with little fanfare. Its owners quietly braced to go out of business, too.
Popular corn-maze site along I-84 gets new owner — who plans to develop it
Idaho’s largest credit union bought a 52-acre parcel next to Interstate 84 and Eagle Road, a highly visible parcel that has been home for many years to The Farmstead Corn Maze and Pumpkin Festival.
‘It’s sad.’ Open since the ’80s, this Downtown Boise restaurant and bar will close
The restaurant was a second-floor fixture in the Capitol Terrace building Downtown.
And, as Capitol Terrace’s owners moved to remake the building, this restaurant closed too:
After a quarter century, one of Downtown Boise’s oldest restaurants will close next week
Ramen Sho, on the other side of Shige, closed at the end of May after one year of business.
Shoppers lament loss of Kmart as its last Treasure Valley store prepares to close
Kmart has its roots in a five-and-dime store S.S. Kresge founded in 1897 in Memphis, Tennessee.In 1966, it opened a store on Americana Boulevard, just north of the Boise River. The company replaced that store with a new one twice as large on ParkCenter Boulevard in 1992. At the time, Kmart was the second-largest retailer in the United States, trailing only Walmart. Its last Boise store closed in 2016.
Kmart is owned by Sears Holdings, which brings us to ...
Liquidation sale underway at Boise’s Sears. But beware: Not everything may be a bargain
Sears’ Boise store was no longer attracting enough shoppers to survive. Years of companywide turnaround efforts bore little fruit as Sears announced round after round of store closings, which finally reached Boise.
And as the year ended, the retail wars claimed another victim, expected to succumb by March 2019:
Another Boise discount department store will close. A liquidation sale has started
“It’s crazy how there’s so much closing,” one shopper said. “With Kmart going out of business, too, it’s just another one going down.”
Meanwhile, the owner of one previously closed store hopes to bring it back:
Embroiled in lawsuit, Smoky Davis owners hope to open again in Boise. Guess where?
With Smoky Davis gone for the first holiday season in 65 years, households across the Treasure Valley faced a plight this year.
Closings aren’t always cause for sadness:
This new Meridian restaurant just closed because it was too popular. It lasted 4 days.
The restaurant reopened a few days later.
This story was originally published December 31, 2018 at 5:48 PM.
