12-story building by Boise library. More than 500 apartments. Houses. Coming near you
The latest proposed developments, other construction projects and new businesses around the Treasure Valley
Boise
The board of Boise’s urban renewal agency has given a unanimous thumbs-up to a proposed 12-story building with senior housing and a parking garage across the street from Boise’s main library.
The vote allows the building to be eligible for investment from the agency. The agency, the Capital City Development Corp., would contribute $6.5 million to buy about 200 of the $53 million project’s roughly 300 parking stalls for public use, plus $750,000 for infrastructure and streetscape improvements.
The building is proposed by Boise’s Wilcomb family, whose Wilcomb LLC owns an old warehouse at River and 8th streets that would be torn down to make way for the building. The warehouse is best known as the former home of the Foothills School of Arts and Sciences.
The building would have a ground floor of office, retail and restaurant space, four floors of parking, and seven floors holding 160 apartments for people 55 and older. It would be the tallest building in that section of downtown, but board Chairperson Dana Zuckerman said she would not call it a tower.
“I think it’s funny to characterize this as a tower,” Zuckerman said. “I think it will fit right into the area.”
The Wilcomb family’s Jordan-Wilcomb Construction Co. would build the building in a partnership with Global Senior Housing, a San Diego-based company whose projects include the 74-house Village Bungalows subdivision for people 55 and older on Ustick Road in Meridian.
An agency official said the parking stalls would cost taxpayers between $30,000 and $35,000 each.
City officials started talking to the Wilcombs a couple of years ago as Boise leaders promoted a new main library to replace the aging one on the south side of River Street facing Capitol Boulevard. Those plans were shelved after Boise voters enacted an ordinance requiring a citywide election on a new library, and ousted then-Mayor David Bieter, the new library’s most vocal champion.
“Regardless of what happens to the library, we are in great need of parking there,” Zuckerman said. “There just isn’t enough parking for everyone. I’m excited about this.”
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Collegiate Development Group of St. Louis has applied for a building permit to build a seven-story, 258-unit apartment building at 270 E. Myrtle St.
The building, which the Statesman has reported on previously, will also include a 358-space parking garage and 7,800 square feet of commercial space.
The city approved the project in June 2019.
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Workers have almost finished building and landscaping a new Pierce Park Elementary School at 5015 N. Pierce Park Lane.
The nearly 50,000-square-foot school is one of 22 major construction projects funded by $172.5 million in bond sales that Boise School District voters approved in 2017. It has 17 classrooms. Its old sign, donated by Jake Plummer, the Capital High football star who later played at, Arizona State and as quarterback for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals and Denver Broncos, is now hanging inside on the gym wall.
The nearly $14 million school was designed by Boise’s Slichter|Ugrin Architects, and its general contractor is Meridian’s Engineered Structures Inc. District spokesperson Dan Hollar said teachers and other employees already are working in the building, and it will be ready for students when the district begins its phased return to in-person learning on Monday, Sept. 21.
The district also will open two other new schools this fall:
▪ Mountain View Elementary, 3500 N. Cabarton Lane.
▪ Highlands Elementary, 3434 N. Bogus Basin Road.
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The Ada County Highway District is moving forward with a plan for an 11th Street bikeway in downtown Boise.
It would extend from Washington Street north to River Street, providing a connection between Camel’s Back Park and the Boise River.
The highway district is working with the city of Boise and its urban renewal agency, the Capital City Development Corp., plus the Idaho Transportation Department. As part of its public outreach, the urban-renewal agency found that 95% of respondents wanted to see the project completed with improved bicycle safety.
Raised or protected bike lanes provide the most safety for users, as they separate cyclists from cars. Only the raised option, however, allows for parking on both sides of the street.
The next step is to present those two options to the public in an online open house scheduled for Sept. 24. That presentation will be recorded, and people will be able to provide feedback through Oct. 9.
Construction on the project is expected to be done in 2022.
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The Boise City Council has approved a preliminary plat for 12 houses in the planned Greenway Subdivision, built by Timber and Love, the company owned by HGTV’s Boise Boys.
The project would be built on a 1.5-acre parcel at 5160 W. Wylie Lane that now houses a manufacturing shop. Each house would be about 2,400 square feet and would have a two-car garage.
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Andy Thompson Construction is seeking building permits for six sets of duplexes at 9401 W. Ustick Road. Each building will have 3,278 square feet, with three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.
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ASTR Institute, a physical therapy clinic, is seeking an occupancy permit at 3320 N. Milwaukee St. Suite 180.
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Paragon Men’s Health is seeking an occupancy permit at 2063 E. Summersweet Drive. The former tenant was East to West Family Medicine.
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Rocky Mountain Cheese leased retail space in Five Mile Plaza, 10500 Overland Road, reports TOK Commercial.
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Meridian
Cooperative DevCo, a company registered to Nicholas Hampton of Boise, applied to build 67 single-family homes on 13 acres at the southwest corner of Victory and Meridian roads.
The new subdivision could be called Jocelyn Park.
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CBH Homes started construction of three new buildings that are part of the Southridge Apartments complex at 1751 Grand Fork Way, south of I-84 and east of Ten Mile Road.
Each of the 12-unit buildings is set to cost about $1.3 million, according to a permit filed with the city.
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The Meridian Police Department is building a training building that will include mock buildings and props allowing trainees to mimic “real world” crime scenarios.
The building, at 1327 Watertower St., near the southwest intersection of Locust Grove and Franklin roads, is estimated to cost $3.1 million, according to a permit filed with the city.
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Boise Black Rifle is opening a gun store at 1580 N. Stonehenge Way, Suite 102, south of Fairview Avenue and east of Locust Grove Road.
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Garden City
The California developers of a proposed addition to an upscale Garden City apartment complex along the Boise River have asked for extra time to build it.
A unit of the Kennedy Wilson Co., a Beverly Hills real estate investment firm, first requested to expand the River Pointe Apartments two years ago onto an adjacent vacant property. The apartments are on North Strawberry Glenn Road, east of Cole road and north of Marigold Street.
In February 2019, city officials rejected the plan for 108 units in several four-story buildings. The developers came back with plans for six three-story buildings housing 90 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. That was approved in December, but the approval expires in one year.
In a letter to the city, applicant Dave Eadie of KW River Pointe Premiere LLC said COVID-19 “has greatly impacted KW’s ability to complete these items within one year after approval.” The business requested a one-year extension.
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Notable
Commercial development in the Boise area has been sharply affected by the coronavirus and record-low interest rates, TOK Commercial says.
The average value of commercial permits so far in 2020 is up 48% compared with the same period of 2019, while the number of new permits is down 59%, the Boise commercial real estate agency said in a news release. 2020’s average permit value is $1.43 million, up from 2019’s average of $0.97 million.
“This data is indicative of a market that is seeing larger, well capitalized projects move forward, while smaller projects with funding challenges remain sidelined,” the agency said.
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A New York hedge fund has taken a larger ownership stake in Midas Gold Corp., the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company whose Midas Gold Idaho Inc. unit is working to resume mining gold from an old mine in central Idaho.
Paulson & Co. Inc. converted notes worth $82.1 million Canadian into shares of the company in late August. The conversion gives Paulson a 44% ownership share and represents a bet on the company’s future.
“Paulson intends to remain a long-term shareholder of the company,” said Marcelo Kim, a partner in Paulson and the chairman of Midas Gold’s board, in a news release. “... This action will better position the company to achieve its long-term objective of developing the Stibnite Gold Project.”
Midas is seeking to mine gold and antimony in Stibnite, a historic mining district about 50 miles northeast of Cascade. Midas has said it plans to invest $1 billion and create 1,000 jobs. The Idaho company is based in Donnelly, though most of its officers work in Boise.
The Mining Journal, a London-based trade journal, sees Paulson’s move as a sign of increasing interest in Idaho mining.
“Idaho is emerging from the shadows of neighbouring Nevada and becoming a focus for gold exploration as the state seeks to re-establish one of the key industries of its past,” the Mining Journal wrote in a story published Sept. 11.
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Albertsons Cos. just bought 6.8 million shares of its own stock at a bargain from a bankrupt asset management firm.
The Boise grocery chain bought the stock at $12 per share from Gabriel Assets, a hedge fund ordered to sell its assets by a court-appointed receivership.
Albertsons paid $77 million for the shares, significantly less than if bought on the New York Stock Exchange, where on Wednesday Albertsons stock was listed at $13.21 per share.
The shares represent 1.2% of the company’s shares outstanding.
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This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
