1,000 apartments in 5 projects: What’s coming near you. And: Latest on unaffordable rents
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Affording Boise: Rental housing
Soaring rents. Skyrocketing home prices. The double-digit rates of increase in the costs of Boise-area housing create increasingly urgent problems for low-income, working-class and even moderate-income Idahoans who need places to live. Affording Boise is a series of Idaho Statesman special reports on housing. This collection focuses on rental homes, including apartments. A separate collection focuses on homeownership.
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The latest proposed developments, other construction projects and new businesses around Idaho’s Treasure Valley:
Boise
Ball Ventures Ahlquist’s 13-story, two-tower building with 100 apartments in downtown Boise is getting closer to being constructed.
The project is at 200 N. 4th St. on the northeast corner of North 4th and West Idaho streets. It’s expected to have about 125 residential units and be completed in early 2024.
The apartment and office complex navigated the planning process and won approval when Boise Mayor Lauren McLean broke a 3-3 City Council tie last spring. Neighbors opposed the building’s height, and the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended that the council reject the proposal.
The site has already been cleared out for construction, and architectural firm Cushing Terrell has applied for a commercial permit.
After revisions to the original design, the building is planned to have commercial space on the ground floor, a five-level parking garage, 11 floors of apartments adjacent to and above the parking, and seven floors of office space above the parking.
The residential tower is the north tower and the office tower is the south tower.
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A developer is beginning to make plans to build a 170-unit multifamily building for an “active adult community” at 60 N. Cole Road on the western edge of the Boise Bench just south of the Interstate 184 Connector.
The proposal is for the southeast corner of North Cole Road and West Bethel Street.
Pivot North Architecture’s Brian Wenzel had a pre-application meeting with city officials to discuss the plans. The proposal asks for a height exemption allowing the height to be 68.5 feet tall. City staff members recommended that some units be rented out at affordable rates to support the height variance request and parking reduction.
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Apartments could be coming at last to the site of a long-demolished Fred Meyer store in the Hillcrest Shopping Center in Boise’s struggling Central Bench neighborhood.
California-based Red Tail Acquisitions is making plans to construct 108 apartments in six buildings plus a clubhouse and barbecue space at 1404 S. Phillippi St., north of West Overland Road.
The project is being called Hillcrest Apartments, according to an application. The proposal includes the addresses 5350 and 5380 W. Overland Road.
In a letter of intent, David Glancey, of the architectural firm Glancey Rockwell and Associates, said the project is “an infill site within the existing Hillcrest Shopping Center and creates a natural transition between the commercial use and existing residential neighborhood.”
Red Tail first proposed apartments there in 2014, but they were never built. Two years ago, the city of Boise considered buying the site for affordable housing, but the deal fell through, BoiseDev reported.
Glancey said the six buildings would each be three stories tall and called them “modest.” At a neighborhood meeting before the application was submitted, neighbors raised concerns about traffic on Phillippi Street and walkable paths through the site.
Red Tail Acquisitions submitted an application for a planned unit development.
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A new seven-story building with 104 studio apartments on the northeast corner of North 16th and West State streets is getting closer to being built.
Five percent of the apartments would be available for people earning 80%-100% of the area median income.
The building would be at 1522 W. State St., where downtown and the North End meet. Cameron Investments, the project’s developer, is applying for a design review hearing.
The building would have a parking garage, retail space on the ground floor and bicycle parking.
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Corey Barton Homes Inc. is working on building 46 town houses in the North West neighborhood.
Corey Barton Homes is applying for a design review of the project, named Roe Street Townhomes No. 2, at 6190 N. Tarako Ave. and other nearby addresses, north of State Street and west of Gary Lane.
The development would have eight four-plexes and four six-plexes, according to plans filed with the city.
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Seventeen town houses in Southeast Boise are close to becoming reality.
The Boise City Council plans to host a public hearing at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, on the proposal to build the townhouses at 2315 S. Broadway Ave., according to a legal notice. The location is west of Broadway Avenue and north of West Melrose Street.
Developer David Benoit’s planned unit development application names the project Wyeth Acres Subdivision. It calls for renovating the existing historic home on the property and rezoning from single-family residential to medium-density residential.
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Business owner Andrea Dixey wants to open a dessert shop called Sweetz Treats at 7609 W. Overland Road, across the street from the Regal Edwards Boise movie theater.
The shop would sell ice cream, caramel apples, frozen cheesecake, brownies and more, according to an application filed with the city.
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More than 150 acres of open space could be developed for an industrial park if the City Council approves.
The land is southwest of the Boise Airport and is owned by the airport. The city of Boise could generate property tax revenue from new buildings and warehouses, and the Boise Airport could make money from a ground lease.
About 75.5 of the 153 acres are zoned for open space but a holding zone until development occurs. The other 77.5 acres are zoned for “permanent” open space, which has caused a stir among neighbors.
The City Council plans to host a public hearing at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 17, for the rezoning of 153 acres at 5121 W. Gowen Road. In March, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended rezoning the easternmost 75.5 acres for industrial use but not rezoning the westernmost 77.5 acres. The 77.5 acres are also closest to houses on South Umatilla Avenue.
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A new bike path could be coming to Eighth Street from State to Union streets. This would help connect the North End and the Greenbelt for cyclists.
The Ada County Highway District and Capital City Development Corp., Boise’s urban renewal agency, partnered on the potential bike path. After studying multiple options, the preferred design has protected bicycle lanes on both sides of the road.
Last week’s Ada County Highway District meeting included a public hearing and discussion of the topic lasted more than two hours as people testifying questioned the plan’s safety. The district’s commissioners voted to revisit the topic May 25.
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Meridian
CenterCal LLC and Salt Development, a Salt Lake City development company, submitted pre-application materials to build 503 apartments at the Village at Meridian.
The Bridge @ the Village at Meridian would have 30,000 square feet of apartments atop ground-floor retail.
According to a photo on the Salt Development website, The Bridge would be connected by an actual bridge across Longwing Lane.
The building would be located at 3210 E. Longwing Lane. It would be located off Eagle Road, before the Urban Outfitters and Axiom Fitness at the Village.
It would be on 6.53 acres. The application said the land is now vacant, with surface parking lots. It also said the building could include office space.
This application was first reported by BoiseDev.
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Corey Barton wants to build 20 single-family homes on 3.5 acres as part of the Jump Creek subdivision on the northwest corner of Black Cat and McMillan roads.
The Meridian City Council is scheduled to hear the proposal at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, at City Hall.
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The UPS Store leased 2,400 square feet in the Eagle Island Marketplace, 6700 N. Linder Road, TOK Commercial reported.
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Kiln opened a co-working space at 1120 S. Rackham Way, in the Eagle View Landing development at Interstate 84 and Eagle Road.
The 50,000-square-foot flexible workspace occupies the top two floors of the Kiln-branded building. Kiln has five locations in Utah and one in Boulder, Colorado.
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Nampa
Homebuilder Corey Barton wants to build 467 homes south of Karcher Road and east of Lake Road.
The Middlebury North subdivision would include 221 single-family houses, 45 duplexes and 39 four-plexes, the application said.
Barton, represented by Jane Suggs with Givens Pursley, wants to develop the subdivision on 121 acres. Middlebury North would be the second phase of a development. Middlebury South, the first phase, was approved last year by the Nampa City Council.
Star
Star BBQ leased 1,443 square at 10474 W. State St., TOK Commercial reported.
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Notable
Two-thirds of economically modest Idaho households are likely paying more rent than they can afford, according to a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Idaho Asset Building Network.
The report says Idaho has a shortage of more than 24,000 affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income earners. Two in three of these renters are “severely housing cost-burdened,” according to the report. A home is considered affordable when a family pays no more than 30% of its income on rent.
“Idahoans across the state are feeling this squeeze in the market, and the consequences are far-reaching,” said Kendra Knighten, Idaho Asset Building Network policy associate, in a news release. “When families cannot find homes with affordable rents, they are unable to afford the necessities they need to ensure their households have access to important health care services and medications, nutritious food, quality day care, and other necessities.”
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Boise rents increased 2.9% month-over-month in April, the second biggest one-month jump in April among the country’s 100 largest cities, according to a report from Apartment List, a rental platform. The national increase was 0.9%.
Compared with rent prices a year ago, Boise rent is now 12.1% higher, which ranks 69th among the biggest 100 American cities. Last year in April, rent was 25.4% higher than the previous year.
Median rents in Boise are $1,151 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,359 for a two-bedroom apartment.
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Undeveloped land just got even more expensive in Ada County, where the average price of an acre of land for commercial development is now $595,121, says Colliers, the commercial real estate agency.
That’s up from $574,248 in the previous quarter.
But the Canyon County average slipped to $315,377, from $339,143.
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This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
