This just-proposed Boise building would be Idaho’s tallest. Who would build it, for what
A 27-story luxury apartment building in downtown Boise could knock off the Eighth & Main building as Boise’s tallest building.
Oppenheimer Development Corp. announced Tuesday that it plans to put up 297 apartments at 1115 W. Idaho St., on what is now a parking lot next to the Record Exchange. The building would also include ground-floor retail space, covered public parking and a rooftop pool.
Plans calls for the building to top out at 330 feet, or 7 feet taller than the Eighth & Main building completed in 2014. The 27 floors for 12th and Idaho would be nine more than the 18 at Eighth & Main, the state’s tallest building.
The announcement comes as the 10-story 11th and Idaho office building is being completed a block away.
Construction is expected to begin in summer 2022, with completion in early 2024, Jeremy Malone, Oppenheimer vice president, said by email.
Plans call for seven floors of parking with 396 spaces, 18 residential floors above the garage, and a two-story amenity deck on top with steps and terraces.
There will be a combination of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units and several penthouses. Apartments will range from 480 square feet to 1,000 square feet.
Each residential floor, Oppenheimer said in a news release, will have “unparalleled views of the Foothills, mountains, Boise River, Greenbelt, parks and the city.”
The top of the building — inspired by the Sawtooth Mountains — mimics the profile of a mountain and slopes to the east. It would “capitalize on the spectacular views to the city and Foothills,” Oppenheimer said.
“This highest level of architectural quality will further enhance the Boise urban center for many years to come,” Skip Oppenheimer, president of Oppenheimer Development Corp., said in the release.
For the project, Oppenheimer has teamed with White Oak Realty Partners, a Chicago developer, and Cleveland-based Ponsky Capital Partners.
The proposed building was designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz and Associates, which has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle. The architecture firm most recently designed the $2.2 billion O’Hare Global Terminalunder construction at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Oppenheimer built the 14-story One Capital Centerand the 11-story Wells Fargo Center, across Main Street from one another in downtown Boise. It also built the Overland Park Shopping Center at 7109 W. Overland Road and professional business parks in Meridian and Eagle.
It’s a summer for tall buildings in the Boise area.
A Wisconsin developer announced plans in June to build a 19-story building with high-end apartments between the former Concordia University School of Law and Chipotle Mexican Grill on Front Street.
The building, named Ovation, would have 209 apartments and 259 parking spaces, plus 85 bicycle spaces, in an interior garage.
It would be the third-tallest building in Boise — fourth if 12th and Idaho is built — at 231 feet. Eighth & Main has 18 floors but with a parapet is 323 feet tall, according to Emporis, which compiles building heights around the world. U.S. Bank Plaza, with 20 floors, rises 267 feet.
And over in Garden City, Vida Enterprises of Boise announced last month plans to build an 18-story building at 510 E. 41st St. in Garden City.
The 252-foot-tall building would have 111 condominiums and ground-floor commercial space. Garden City’s City Council had previously approved a plan for nine floors in 2020.
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 11:44 AM.
