Affordable Boise homes are coming. As housing costs soar, keep your eye on these 6 sites
As prices soar, the city of Boise is taking two more steps to build affordable housing. One is on a site close to downtown, the other at an aging Central Bench shopping center.
If built, the two developments, combined with other projects on the drawing board, may provide nearly 600 living units — enough to deliver slight relief to the Boise area’s rapidly worsening affordability problem.
For the first development, the board of the Capital City Development Corp., the city’s urban renewal agency, voted Monday to solicit requests from developers for affordable apartments on West Idaho Street just west of 17th Street in the West Downtown neighborhood.
For the second, and larger, development, the Boise City Council voted Tuesday to buy ground at the Hillcrest Shopping Center for multifamily housing. The site once housed a Fred Meyer store, torn down 10 years ago.
Those two could deliver about 230 apartments. Other projects, including three more from the city and one from a nonprofit, could add 350 or more multifamily and single-family homes.
The measures are advancing just as home-sales prices set another record and rents keep rising. The median price of an Ada County house is now nearly $410,000 as buyers desperate to find homes pay cash, forgo appraisals and skip inspections. Rents in Boise have climbed 5.5% over the past year, compared with a 1.4% decline nationally, according to ApartmentList.
Here’s a look at each plan:
1. Apartments on Idaho Street
This site is an empty lot at 1715 W. Idaho St. with an old basketball court in a residential neighborhood.
Previously, Mussell Construction had planned to build 17 residential units there, eight of which would have been short-term rentals. He and the property owner secured city approval of the development, which at one point they named Tibbs Condominiums.
.JPG "Nets and sign where Boise Bike Polo players play on proposed Tibbs Condominiums site at 1709 to 1715 W. Idaho St. (2).JPG")
But neighbors objected both to the short-term rentals and to the project’s three-story design. A soil analysis showed that low-quality dirt fill on the site would not support a three-story building, said Jordyn Neerdaels, spokeswoman for the urban renewal agency. So Mussell dropped his development plan, and the property owner put the site on the market.
The agency decided to buy it and paid $605,000 for it July 1. The agency plans to publish this week a request for proposals from developers for units that would be affordable to people earning 80% to 100% of the area median income.
The 80% median for one person is $41,920, and the 100% median is $62,880, according to in income-limits calculation the agency is using. For a four-person family, the 80% median is $59,840, the 100% median $89,760. A one-bedroom at 80% of the area median income cold rent for up to $1,196. A three-bedroom could rent for $1,496.
The agency is encouraging, but not requiring, developers to submit proposals with apartments that would serve those renters. A building more than two stories tall would require soil remediation, a job CCDC believes could cost $250,000 or more, Neerdaels said by phone.
How many apartments would be built? That’s not known. Zoning allows up to 16 units on the property, though Mussell had received permission for 18 with a conditional-use permit.
If this project succeeds, agency officials hope it would spur additional redevelopment nearby. A boarded-up house borders the site on one side, a surface parking lot on the other.
The agency board approved a plan that envisioned development starting in 2022, though some board members urged the agency staff to speed the timetable.
“There is a real need for affordable housing, and the sooner we can get these projects underway, the better off we all are,” said Mayor Lauren McLean, who appointed herself to the board after taking office in January.
The agency uses property-tax revenue to offer incentives to encourage building in urban-renewal districts where developers otherwise might not build because of the lack of profit potential.
2. Multifamily housing at Hillcrest Shopping Center
The current owners of the old Fred Meyer site, at the northeast corner of Phillippi Street and Overland Road, considered having apartments built six years ago.
California-based Red Tail Development planned six three-story buildings housing 36 one-bedroom units and 72 two-bedroom units, along with a clubhouse and pool. They were never built.
The nearly 5-acre site’s zoning allows up to 43.5 units per acre. Up to 215 living units could be built, mayoral spokesperson Seth Ogilvie said by email.
The site consists of four parcels that cover the former store site and adjacent parking spaces. The owners put those parcels on the market, and city officials tentatively agreed to buy them for nearly $2.5 million, using money the City Council already set aside for the city’s Grow Our Housing initiative: $3 million in the year that began Oct. 1, plus $3 million for the year after.
The council’s decision to buy the site is subject to a final property evaluation, with a closing date in January.
The city operates a branch library in the shopping center. An Albertsons supermarket anchors the center.
3. Housing, shops on a downtown Boise block
The urban-renewal board on Monday also heard a plan to redevelop two properties the agency bought in 2017 on a block between 10th, 11th, State and Jefferson streets near the heart of downtown. These sites, too, may include affordable housing.
One property, at 421 N. 10th St., formerly housed the Idaho Sporting Goods store. The other, at 1010 W. Jefferson St., houses a two-story beige office building with dark red trim.
A staff proposal suggested developing 100 housing units on the sites. Construction could begin in summer 2022.
Some board members said the block, which is across State Street from the Treasure Valley YMCA and near Boise High School, would be a good place for ground-level retailers.
“I do want to emphasize how important it is to the city that we look at a mix of uses here, with as much housing as possible,” McLean said.
4. 210 apartments, townhouses at Franklin and Orchard
An even bigger affordable-housing project is already in the works on the Central Bench.
As previously reported, the city plans to bring at least 210 units, divided between townhouses and apartments, to the southwest corner of Franklin Road and Orchard Streets. As many as 90% of the units may be affordable.
The site housed the Franklin School until the Boise School District tore it down 10 years ago.
5. NeighborWorks’ houses on old Cole School grounds
NeighborWorks, a Boise nonprofit, told the City Council on Oct. 6 that it plans to start work next summer on 39 single-family homes — seven detached and 32 attached residences — at the southwest corner of the old Cole Elementary School property, located at Cole and Fairview roads.
The homes would be sold. Prices have not been set. For the latest Garden City project at 45th and Adams streets, home prices were listed in the low $200,000s.
NeighborWorks has developed four pocket neighborhood projects in Garden City and two in Boise. A fifth Garden City project is being built now.
NeighborWorks also owns 283 multifamily units for low-income families.
6. Housing on old Smoky Davis property
The city is buying just under one acre of land that was part of the old Smoky Davis smoked-meats shop at 3912 W. State St., west of Veterans Memorial Parkway, for a housing development. Like the Hillcrest site, this property is targeted for “mixed income” housing. Commercial spaces may be built too.
Details have yet to be worked out. The City Council approved the $765,000 purchase in August, but a 90-day period for the city to complete a due-diligence review is not yet complete.
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
