6-story apartment building near Boise homeless shelters would replace older units
Six stories. One hundred thirty apartments. Ground floor retail.
That’s what could be coming to a for-now quiet part of Boise along River Street, just north of the Boise River and west of 11th Street.
Boise developer deChase Miksis is proposing a “market rate” apartment building in the Pioneer neighborhood, a corner of downtown perhaps best known for its homeless shelters, but where redevelopment is gradually adding apartments and condominiums for middle- and upper-income people.
During the early 1900s, the River Street neighborhood was one of Boise’s most racially diverse. But it doesn’t have a historic district and is cut off from the rest of downtown by the I-184 Connector. Boise’s homeless services are now concentrated there.
In recent years, the Ash & River town houses, The Afton condominiums on the northwest corner of River and 8th streets, and the River Street Lofts on the northeast corner of River and 15th streets have added new housing to the area. Payette Brewing and Push and Pour coffee shop moved in, too.
DeChase Miksis developed the Ash & River town houses and targeted rents for typical workers earning between 80% and 140% of the area median income, the Idaho Statesman previously reported. A three-bedroom, three-bathroom town house is listed on its website for $2,305 or more per month.
DeChase Miksis also recently developed two downtown apartment buildings, the Gibson and the Lucy. The Gibson is renting studios for at least $1,445, one-bedroom apartments for $1,725 and two-bedrooms for $2,295. The Lucy is renting studios for more than $1,500 per month.
For now, four apartment buildings built in 1978 take up the block along River Street from Ash to 11th streets. They each have eight bedrooms spread among four apartments, according to the Ada County Assessor’s Office. That would change if the proposed six-story building takes their spots.
DeChase Miksis Partner Dean Papé declined to comment on the proposal.
The proposed building is an example of the trend of bigger buildings being proposed farther from downtown’s core, like the 125-unit The Mill at Loggers Creek apartment building in Southeast Boise near Parkcenter Boulevard and more off-campus student housing buildings near Boise State University.
The new building would have a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, according to a letter submitted to the city. With rent at market rates, the new apartments almost certainly cost more than what tenants pay in the four older buildings there now. A parking garage would take up two of the six stories.
The new proposal includes four addresses: 1110, 1122, 1130 W. River St. and 672 S. Ash St. The letter, dated Aug. 30 on Pivot North Architecture letterhead, said they would be consolidated into one parcel.
The property is owned by River Street BE LLC, according to the assessor’s office. That company has the same address as El Segundo, California, real estate company Baron Equities, according to a filing with the Idaho secretary of state.
River Street BE LLC acquired the four properties this year, according to the assessor’s office. Three of them were previously owned by Allen Dixon and one was previously owned by Jerry Giese.
Baron Equities is the developer of another apartment building nearby at the southwest corner of 11th and Lee streets. Boise’s Design Review Committee approved the 48-apartment development in June 2021 to replace a mobile home park and three houses, the Statesman previously reported.
Some of the building’s elements are what the city’s government wants to encourage. For example, the developers are receiving a 20% reduction in the minimum parking spots they must provide: 10% for including a parking garage and 10% for being near a bus stop.
As a result of the developer’s proposed rezoning, the building would be allowed to have unlimited height rather than a maximum of 45 feet; and unlimited units rather than a maximum of 87 per acre. Plans call for the new building to be no more than 75 feet tall with 152 units per acre.
The property is adjacent to a zone where the height and density are unlimited.
There’d be a gym, pool and bicycle storage.
The architects’ letter also said that “the Pioneer Neighborhood has a large amount of shelter housing. By providing critical market rate housing the proposed project will offset it and bring more diverse housing options to the area.”
The letter cited the city of Boise’s Housing Needs Analysis that said the city needs 2,770 new units of housing each year for the next 10 years to keep up with demand.
“This project provides an opportunity to be a much-needed solution to these challenges,” the letter said. “By providing additional housing and retail to this already diverse area, the proposed project can work to create a well-defined and unique, mixed-income, urban neighborhood.”
