Boise approved this attractive West End apartment building. But will it ever be built?
A developer has won city approval for a six-story, 88-apartment building in Boise’s West End, adding to the actual and planned developments that have started to transform the neighborhood.
The apartments would join what may be the neighborhood most overdue for redevelopment in Boise today. The long-neglected West End — best known in the late 20th century for car dealerships and in the early 21st century for acres of unsightly empty lots — is slowly coming to life with new investment.
But will these apartments actually be built? And if so, who will build them? Those are questions raised by developer deChase Miksis’s decision to put the unbuilt project up for sale.
DeChase Miksis, a Eugene, Oregon, firm with a Boise office, applied for city approval of the apartments just four months ago. The company proposed its building at 2412 and 2420 W. Fairview Ave., on the north side of Fairview and kitty-corner from the St. Luke’s Health System’s ambulatory-care hospital being built on the south side between 25th and 27th streets.
The 2412 address is occupied by Dietz Automotive, a repair shop, and the 2420 address was formerly occupied by Bryston Auto, a dealership.
No affordable housing proposed
The building would include five floors of apartments atop a ground floor with parking, residential amenities and a small, street-facing retail space. The one- and two-bedroom apartments would range from 508 square feet to 1,029 square feet. Some apartments would have their own decks.
The developer proposed no affordable housing; estimated rents have not been disclosed. At DeChase Miksis’ The Lucy apartments downtown, one-bedroom units were available on Tuesday from $1,514 to $2,114 per month and two-bedrooms from $2,294 to $2,794. Boise’s median rents are now $1,102 for a one-bedroom and $1,301 for a two-bedroom, according to Apartment List.
The development received a swift City Hall blessing with the Design Review Board’s approval on Dec. 22. But less than two weeks later, commercial real estate agencies were promoting the property for sale. At least one listed it at $4 million before deleting the price from its website.
“This site is well positioned in the path of growth as the Boise core continues to push this direction,” LoopNet’s listing of the property read. “... This section of Boise is changing rapidly and will look totally different in a few years than it does today.”
New apartments, hospital, college campus planned
Apartment developers stand to become the biggest agent of that West Boise change, though many of their offerings are yet unbuilt. Construction work has begun on The Avens, a complex of 189 studio and one-bedroom units — including 11 for low-income tenants — in two buildings at 2742 W. Fairview Ave. Other developers plan 358 apartments at 27th Street and Fairview, and 271 at 2600 W. Fairview.
Meanwhile, the College of Western Idaho is gearing up to try to build the community college’s long-desired campus on West Main Street next to the Greenbelt — after six years of dormancy following the narrow defeat of a bond issue by voters in 2016.
Already built is the Adare building, which opened in 2019 with 134 all-affordable apartments at 2419 W. Fairview. Just to the west, the St. Luke’s Health System’s hospital on Fairview between 25th and 27th streets is finally approaching completion after years of intermittent work. St. Luke’s previously said it would be an orthopedic hospital, then decided to make it an ambulatory-care hospital instead.
For its part, deChase Miksis has become an important player in the world of Boise’s multifamily-building development. Its developments, sometimes in partnership with other developers, include the Ash & River town houses in downtown’s southwest corner, the Gibson apartments at 5th and Idaho streets, the Thomas Logan apartments at 116 S. 6th St. and The Lucy apartments at 512 W. Grove St. — including limited numbers of lower-than-market-price rentals at Thomas Logan and The Lucy.
The firm is partnering with Edlen & Co. for what could become the biggest downtown housing project ever launched by the city’s urban renewal agency: the remaking of a block across State Street from the YMCA, a project with plans that call for including 155 below-market-rent apartments.
So why is deChase Miksis putting these West End apartments up for sale?
The company isn’t saying. An email and a call to Austin Chandler, the project’s representative and the company’s development and capital markets manager in Boise, were not returned.
City approval entitles developer to build
Selling city-approved but unbuilt apartment developments is nothing new. Owners and developers’ plans and circumstances change. A change in the market, a change in the developer’s priorities or something else could trigger a decision to sell before a single shovelful of dirt has been turned.
Official approval of a development by itself is worth money. As is, the two Fairview properties’ combined value is $1.14 million, as pegged by the Ada County assessor. That’s just over one-fourth of the reported asking price.
Local government approvals of a proposed new use means the developer is legally entitled to go ahead with the project, and that entitlement is valuable. The 88 apartments would still cost additional millions to build.
“This rare urban multifamily development opportunity is in a thriving and quickly re-developing area west of downtown,” according to the Sotheby’s listing. “The site has easy access to Highway 26/Interstate 84 and just five minutes northwest of downtown Boise with close proximity to city parks, Boise Whitewater Park, the Greenbelt, shopping and dining.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2023 at 4:00 AM.
