Boise’s Lusk District booms with student housing. More apartments just proposed
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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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An early afternoon stroll on South La Pointe Street just east of Ann Morrison Park offers a glimpse of the Lusk District’s past, present and future — an eclectic mix of apartments for Boise State University students, bustling businesses, and unused buildings on the verge of becoming more student housing.
The audible rumble of construction filled the air Wednesday as excavators moved dirt and workers began standing wood up vertically, the beginning of a future student apartment building at 917 S. Lusk St.
Nearby, even more student housing has just been proposed. Two projects would be built: at 916 W. Sherwood St., next to Jim’s Appliance & Furniture, according to an application filed with the city; and at 1385 S. Capitol Blvd., the site of Elmer’s Restaurant.
The two proposals show the neighborhood’s recent boom isn’t slowing down. The district is across Capitol Boulevard from Boise State’s main entrance.
“It’s a great location proximity-wise (to the university), and then all the amenities that are in the immediate area,” Boise developer David Wali of Gardner Co. said by phone. “The river and of course some of the restaurants in the immediate area provide an interesting flavor for students who want to have that college experience as well as the ability to easily walk into the downtown.”
3 planned buildings, 1 under construction
Wali plans a nearby apartment building, too. At the site of a former Pizza Hut at 818 W. Ann Morrison Park Drive, Wali received approval to build a five-story, 91-unit, 280-bed building, with two-, three- and four-bedroom units.
The ground floor would be an “amenity floor” with space for tenants to hang out. Rent would likely be in the range of $800 to $950 per bedroom, the standard rate for these student housing buildings, Wali said.
As of now, the Pizza Hut, with its signature roof, is empty. No construction has begun. The project’s launch depends on where costs come in, Wali said. If everything priced out perfectly, construction would begin this fall and open for the fall 2024 semester.
There’s a fourth building in the works, too, in what used to be an office building at 917 S. Lusk St. That got torn down for apartments under construction now. Plans for the new building feature 180 apartments with 498 bedrooms, according to previous Idaho Statesman reporting.
The area already has recently built apartment buildings. There’s the five-story, 175-unit Green Leaf River Edge apartments. The five-story, 131-unit La Pointe building. And the four-story, 110-unit building called The Vista East. All three were built in 2015.
The rents at Green Leaf River Edge run from $675 to $790 per bedroom, at La Pointe from $720 to $780, and at The Vista East from $880 to $1,105.
On the east side of South La Pointe Street are businesses like The Shed restaurant, Lost Grove Brewing and Madre, a Mexican restaurant where people filled tables outside for lunch Wednesday.
Wali said the timing for student housing revolves around the school year. While most other apartment buildings could open any time of year, it makes sense to open a building geared toward students based on the school calendar.
Boise State’s enrollment grows
Many students at Boise State commute from homes in the Boise area, but those who don’t need housing on or near campus. As Boise State’s enrollment has increased, so has its percentage of students from out of state.
Enrollment data on the university’s website show that 27.2% of Boise State’s 20,350 students were from out of state during the spring 2017 semester. Five years later, that number had jumped to 38.2% of 22,095 students.
The combination of limited on-campus housing, tight housing markets and enrollment surges have made it more challenging for students to find housing.
“When the students come to town, that’s a big influx of folks looking for lodging in and around the university,” Wali said. “... There definitely needs to be more product available for students closer to the university.”
Many students struggle with housing
That product may meet a market need and prove profitable to developers, but it won’t serve students who cannot afford $800 or more per month.
A survey by the Hope Center for College Community and Justice at Temple University asked 3,862 Boise State students about their housing needs in 2020. According to the results, 43% of students had experienced some form of housing insecurity during the previous year, while 16% had experienced homelessness.
The same survey showed that among the survey respondents, 14% had to move in with other people because offinancial problems, and 8% “lived with others beyond the expected capacity of the house or apartment.”
While many of these challenges faced by students were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of affordable housing remained an underlying cause of housing insecurity for students, the survey found.
What’s coming next
The apartments proposed at 916 W. Sherwood St. would replace a building most recently occupied by Automotive Technical Services. A sign in the window Wednesday said it’s closed.
“We are proposing to rezone to (residential office) and provide student housing apartments with amenity spaces and parking on this parcel,” the application says.
The application doesn’t list a developer but says BDE Architecture, of Chicago, is working on the project.
BDE Architecture is also working on the proposal at 1385 S. Capitol Blvd. That proposal says “We are proposing to provide student housing apartments with parking and amenities, along with retail space.”
The developer, or developers, have yet to be identified publicly. Trevor Schur, the BDE architect who is listed on both applications, declined to comment on Wednesday.
Two parcels share the address 1385 S. Capitol Blvd. The parcel in the application is the one where the restaurant is. The other parcel is a parking lot.
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
