Los Angeles developer ready to start work on downtown building with 160 apartments
A California developer plans to break ground next week on a 160-apartment building in downtown Boise.
Roundhouse — formerly known as LocalConstruct — will begin work on the eight-story building called The Cartee at 4th and Broad streets.
The building will be similar to The Fowler, a seven-story building the company opened last year with 159 apartments at 505 W. Broad St. The Fowler is one block west of The Cartee site.
Earlier this year, it was unclear whether work on The Cartee would begin this year. Roundhouse co-owner Casey Lynch told the Statesman over the summer that it would depend on how much costs were from bids submitted for the project. On Tuesday, Lynch, in a phone interview, declined to say how much the building will cost to build.
“I can generally say we’ve seen significant escalation in construction costs, both labor and materials,” Lynch said. “And subcontractors have indicated that the trade tariffs have had a significant impact on certain material prices.”
Construction is expected to take two years, he said.
Apartments will have one, two or three bedrooms. Prices will range from around $1,100 per month for a studio up to around $2,100 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit, he said.
The ground floor will include an entrance lobby, parking, a bike storage area and 5,000 square feet of commercial space for a restaurant on the Broad Street side.
“We are in talks with a local restaurant operator for that space,” Lynch said.
The building will have a large rooftop deck and a spa, community room, fitness center, business center and co-working space., he said. Three of the eight floors will be dedicated to a 170-space parking garage. Vehicles will access the building through an alley at the back of the building.
Even with 1,542 apartment units under construction this year in Ada County — adding to the 5,381 built since 2015 — Lynch said he is confident renters will be interested in moving to The Cartee.
“We continue to believe in the importance of building housing in downtown Boise, for the future success of the city and for environmental benefits,” Lynch said.
The Treasure Valley, he said, needs upward of 1,400 new multifamily units per year to keep up with population growth.
“If the population growth continues, there still isn’t enough housing or multifamily housing units being delivered in the Treasure Valley,” Lynch said. “Now that could change, of course, if there’s an economic recession or something of that nature.”
Both The Cartee and The Fowler are in the Central Addition neighborhood. The Central Addition was one of the first subdivisions outside Boise’s original townsite.
The building is named for Lafayette Cartee, a Boise pioneer who owned the property and lived nearby at 4th and Grove streets in a home that Idaho historian Arthur Hart described as “one of the city’s most handsome houses.”.
Cartee built Boise’s first greenhouse in 1871 and imported trees, shrubs and flowers from the eastern United States, China, India and Japan.
Before he came to Idaho, Cartee lived in Oregon. He was a member of the first Oregon territorial legislature and served as speaker of the House at the 1854 territorial legislature.
Civic and business leaders lived alongside working-class renters after the neighborhood was platted in 1890. After the Union Pacific Railroad laid track on Front Street in 1903, the area declined rapidly.
Most of its grand homes, some of which were architecturally unique in Boise, have since been demolished or relocated. The developer paid to relocate three of them and tore down a fourth to make way for The Fowler.
This story was originally published October 8, 2019 at 1:57 PM.
