Big expansion at Roaring Springs. Firefighters to occupy a funeral home. Coming near you
The latest proposed developments, housing and other construction projects, and new businesses around Idaho’s Treasure Valley:
Boise
Boiseans can comment on a developer’s plan to build 206 homes — 177 apartments and 29 town houses — on the grounds of the historic Idano National Guard Armory building at 801 E. Reserve St., near the Foothills’ Military Reserve trails in the East End.
Utah’s Alpha Development Group proposes two apartment buildings with five stories, including an underground parking garage, which would make the buildings four stories tall above ground. The two other buildings, each with town houses, would have three stories each, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
The plans include a rooftop lounge, a pool and spa, an outdoor movie area, a hammock garden and a slackline balancing space, and several fire pits.
The armory building was built in the 1930s and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Planning and Zoning Commission scheduled a public hearing at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 12, at City Hall, 150 N. Capitol Blvd.
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The Boise Fire Department will lease a downtown funeral home now owned by Idaho Power to house fire and rescue services while a long-planned renovation of Boise’s Fire Station 5 is built.
The Summers Funeral Home, at 12th and Bannock Streets, would have 15,000 square feet of space to house an engine crew and related equipment, according to a memorandum from the Fire Department.
The funeral home was sold to Idaho Power in 2020 after the owner consolidated funeral-home operations in Meridian, according to previous Statesman reporting.
Idaho Power will lease the funeral home to the city for $1,000 a month, and the Fire Department expects to stay for at least 18 months, according to the memo.
The lease is expected to be “revenue neutral,” because the department will not be spending money to operate Fire Station 5 while construction is underway, according to the memo.
Renovations of the temporary location could cost up to $260,192, according to a second memo from the city’s purchasing department. Engineered Structures Inc., a contractor, would renovate the funeral home’s second floor to make it usable as a fire station, according to the memo.
The City Council is expected to issue a contract in mid-December to renovate Fire Station 5, according to the memo.
The temporary fire station’s lease and renovation were approved by the council on Tuesday, Dec. 6.
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Hillside Architecture requested a list of neighbors to contact for a meeting about Fargo 41, a project that would develop properties 4140, 4138, 4130, 4125, 4122 W. State St. into two buildings.
A three-story building at the west corner of Fargo and State streets, on the north side of State several blocks northwest of Veterans Memorial Parkway, would have two floors of three living units (one bedroom, one bath) with work flex space for a total of six units over about 3,000 square feet of community commercial space at the ground level.
The second building, to the east, would have four stories of one-bedroom, one-bath living units with work flex space units totaling 24 dwellings, according to the filing.
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A company called Red Buffalo Capitol LLC wants to build a light manufacturing building in Southeast Boise on open land.
At the 6-acre site at 2171 E. Danzee Drive, the company plans to build an 88,000-square-foot building, according to previous Statesman reporting.
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Boise may soon get a new bank.
Heritage Bank, of Olympia, Washington, plans to open its first branch in Idaho, The Olympian reports. The bank has applied to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to open a branch at 999 W. Main St., Boise, in the heart of downtown.
Two people are working out of temporary space before the bank opens a full-service branch, said Jeff Deuel, president and CEO.
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Black Market Gelato is looking to occupy a space at 2545 S. Fry St., just northwest of the Boise Airport.
The business plans to construct a new clean room, freezer and restroom, according to the permit application.
The tenant’s total square footage would be 53,000 square feet of the 92,750-square-foot industrial building that Adler Industrial is now constructing.
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The Pet Sitter of Boise LLC, a cat-boarding business, applied to use a space at 4202 W. Overland Road, which was previously Clever Paws Dog Training.
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Nampa
Despite homebuilder Corey Barton’s request, the Nampa City Council has decided not to reconsider his application to build 205 homes.
Challenger Development Inc. and Endurance Holdings LLC, a Barton company, asked the council to reconsider its denial ofthe Clearcreek subdivision, which would have six single-family homes, 107 townhouses and 92 apartments in four-plex buildings.
The subdivision would be on 28.6 acres east of South Middleton Road, south of Lone Star Road and north of West Roosevelt Avenue.
“The project proposes 230 parking spaces, not including two garage parking spaces and two driveway spaces for each detached single-family residential unit and townhome,” the application said. “This ... development includes a pocket park, pickleball courts, two playgrounds including one with a gazebo and shuffleboard court, a swimming pool, and a pathway along the Wilson and Orr drains.”
The council denied the project on Nov. 7 after public testimony, saying it was not the right time for such development. Opponents at the public hearing spoke against market-rate town homes and apartments.
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Bi-Mart, the Northwest retail merchandise chain that serves small and midsize cities, has leased 36,136 square feet of space at 407 12th Avenue Road, reported Cushman and Wakefield, a commercial real estate agency.
That’s the site of a former Paul’s Market store in a strip shopping center.
Bi-Mart, based in Eugene, Oregon, has five stores in the Treasure Valley and neighboring counties, one each in Caldwell, Emmett, Kunam Star and Weiser. It has a sixth Idaho store in Rathdrum in North Idaho, and a store in Ontario, Oregon.
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Meridian
The Roaring Spring Waterpark has taken major strikes on an expansion that should be ready for next summer, Idaho News 6 reports.
One attraction will be Tippin’ Tater, “the world’s first and only potato tipping bucket” and part of Camp IdaH20, spokesperson Tiffany Quilici said.
Another is Class Five Canyon, which will have whitewater waves for swimmers with kickboards. A third is Critter Crossing, a pool with water basketball, lily pads and other skill-based activities.
Roaring Springs will add 16 cabanas and the Geyser Bar and Grill, which would allow adults to have alcoholic drinks for the first time, the TV station reported.
The work is the first phase of a five-phase expansion over the next decade that would nearly double the space in the park, the station reported.
“Roaring Springs is already the Northwest’s largest water park, and this will make us one of the largest water parks in the country,” Quilici said.
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Dave Yorgason, of Tall Timber Consulting, wants to build 65 single-family homes north of the intersection of Idaho 16 and Chinden Boulevard.
The Alden Ridge Subdivision would be built on 24 acres at 6870 N. Pollard Lane.
It would be developed in two phases, according to the application. The developer would begin in the southern area first and build the northeast area second.
The subdivision would include a swimming pool, picnic area, pathway network and a park, the application said.
The Meridian City Council approved the subdivision on Tuesday, Dec. 6., after a public hearing.
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Black Cat LLC, a development company associated with Chris Nolan, who is linked to various local development companies, wants to build 52 town houses and 92 single-family houses half a mile south of the intersection of Locust Grove and Lake Hazel roads.
The homes would be on 20 acres at 7200 S.Locust Grove Road. The subdivision would be called Hadler Neighborhood, the application said.
Hethe Clark, a representative for Black Cat LLC, said during a presentation to the Meridian Planning and Zoning Commission that the homes would target an “underserved portion of the market.”
“These are folks who are looking for small lots with low maintenance and high-quality finishes,” he said. “We follow up and we know who the typical buyer is, and the typical buyer is a young professional who is looking for a lock-it-and-leave kind of a situation.”
The Meridian City Council approved the development on Tuesday, Dec. 6, after a public hearing.
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Caldwell
Lionwood Properties LLC, a development agency registered under James Smith of Eagle, wants to build 70 single-family houses and 11 commercial lots on the southeast corner of East Ustick and Indiana roads.
The Greenmont Subdivision would be on 29 acres, the application said. The commercial lots would be located to the north of the property, along with 18 of the homes. A second phase would include the remaining 52 homes and a park.
The developer’s representative wrote in the application that one of the commercial areas could accommodate a medical service provider. Other ideas for the commercial properties include a day care and retail uses, the letter said.
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Around Idaho
A recreational-vehicle park and storage center is planned near the Mountain Home-Fairfield exit of Interstate 84 southeast of Boise. One city official said it offers “new and innovative housing solutions” in the form of RV living.
The Mountainbound Custom Storage & RV Park eventually would have 233 spaces, each 66 by 66 feet, each with an enclosed structure and with covered parking for an RV. The development would be built on 46 acres near I-84’s Exit 95.
Ryan Rodney, owner of Riverbound Custom Storage & RV Park in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, proposed the development, the city of Mountain Home said in a news release.
Some people could live there, Community Development Director Brock Cherry said.
The city said the business plans to have 49 units ready to rent or buy by Oct. 1, 2023.
“We think it is the perfect option for the RV traveler and your typical outdoorsman alike,” Mayor Rich Sykes said in the release.
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Notable
As the nation’s residential real estate market cools, the Boise area has the fifth-highest rate of decline in home-price growth in recent months among the 99 most-populous metro areas, a real estate agency said.
Redfin said the median price per square foot of houses sold in Boise metro rose 20.1% in the year that ended in February, just as the downturn was approaching, but didn’t rise at all in the year that ended in October. The latest 12 months reflect the end of the multiyear local home-price explosion and the start of the multimonth decline since.
“The forces slowing the housing market, such as high mortgage rates, are having an outsized impact on places like Austin and Boise that saw home prices skyrocket over the last few years,” Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari said in a news release. “Home prices can only rise by double digits for so long before the growth becomes unsustainable. High rates and stumbling tech stocks are making it unsustainable quite quickly, especially in destinations popular with tech workers. Plus, many of the out-of-towners with big budgets who wanted to move into those places already have.”
The Boise median in October was $269 per square foot, the same as it was in October 2021, according to Redfin’s data. The median peaked at $297 in December. By February, it had fallen to $274.
The median five years ago, in October 2017, was $136 per square foot. Ten years ago, in October 2012, it was $85.
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Apartment rents are still falling slowly in Boise, a national apartment-rental service says.
Overall rents in Boise fell 0.5% in November, the fifth straight month of decline, Apartment List reported. The overall median rent is now $1,149 for a one-bedroom apartment, $1,356 for a two-bedroom, and $1,381 overall.
But rent growth was so fast until June that rents are still up 9.7% from a year ago, Apartment List said — the 10th fastest rate of growth among the nation’s 100 largest cities. Boise rents are up 40.2% since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
If you think Boise rents are extreme, consider: That $1,381 figure is the 57th highest among those top 100 cities, and it’s just $24 higher than the U.S. average of $1,356. No. 1 is Irvine, California, at $3,155. No. 100 is Cleveland, at $802.
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The Barber Valley Neighborhood Association has called on the parties in a lawsuit over taxes levied by the Harris Ranch Community Improvement District to settle their fight out of court.
The association said the lawsuit by the Harris Ranch CID Taxpayers Association has delayed improvements that the neighborhood association’s board believes are needed.
The lawsuit is about who must pay for the improvements. The district was formed at Harris Ranch developers’ request in a 2010 election with just three votes — two from the developers, and one from a farmhand and tenant who was the only resident then of a district that now includes about 1,000 homes and is still growing.
The developers purposely drew the district’s boundaries to exclude existing Harris Ranch homeowners so they wouldn’t have to pay its taxes. The newcomers who later bought homes inside the district say that’s unfair.
“We are convinced this legal impasse will adversely impact our community,” said the letter signed by members of the neighborhood association board. “... The promise of the Town Center, Village Green, Alta Harris Park, and Warm Springs bypass improvements have already been delayed two years due to this ongoing litigation.”
The neighborhood association said it was not siding either with the taxpayer group or the developers, and its letter said nothing about who should pay for those improvements. “We ... hold all parties responsible for an impasse that has halted community development and instilled a divisive tone that we hope can be healed,” the board wrote.
A hearing in the lawsuit is scheduled in January in Fourth District Court in Boise, with a ruling expected in spring 2023, the letter said.
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Gasoline prices have fallen under $4 per gallon in Idaho, AAA Idaho said, and were still falling as of Monday, Dec. 5.
The state’s average price for a gallon of regular was $3.94 a gallon, 36 cents less than a month ago, though still 28 cents more than a year ago. Idaho has the nation’s seventh-most-expensive gas, AAA Idaho said in a news release, trailing Hawaii, California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and Alaska.
Boise’s average was $3.99 per gallon.
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This story was originally published December 7, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
