Are you ready for a new skyline, Boise? A nearly 40-story tower could be coming downtown
If you thought the new 26-story Arthur apartments downtown would take some getting used to, you might be in for another zap to the brain as a Puget Sound investment group prepares to shake up Boise’s once modest horizon.
An apartment building proposed by Front Street Holdings would have nearly 40 stories, says its architect, the Seattle-based firm GGLO. It would rise at 1080 W. Front St., across from Simplot World Headquarters on Front and from Matlack’s pub on 11th Street. The building would fit on a half block shared with the incoming 15-story dual-brand Marriott AC and Element hotel to its north.
Ringing in at nearly 40 stories would make it the tallest building in Boise by a measure, dethroning the Eighth and Main building, more commonly known as the Zions Bank building, after a 12-year reign. (That building is 18 stories tall, but is still technically taller than the Arthur’s 26 stories because of the easily recognizable spike on its southeastern corner).
The new plans, reported earlier by BoiseDev, could take some time. GGLO Principal Sean Canady said the tower is still in the early stages. He estimated it could take five to seven years to complete.
According to Canady, the tower would include 400 to 420 apartments at a variety of sizes, including some studio units and larger family-sized units. He said there’s a chance the building could have penthouse apartments, and would likely include rooftop amenities too.
“This is a big part of why we put the amenity space on the rooftop, because it gives everyone access to the great views on top,” he said by phone. “In some ways it democratizes the views from the top level.”
The apartments would be offered “at a pretty broad spectrum of price points and with pretty varied design options,” Canady said. “We want to fit across the market.”
He said the apartments would rent at market rates, which would most likely be comparable to the Arthur, since Boise doesn’t have other similar new-construction high rises. Units at the newly opened Arthur at 120 N. 12th St. range from $1,760 to $8,840, according to the apartment’s listing website.
The tower would also include up to 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail and/or commercial uses, according to the application. As-yet-unspecified indoor and outdoor amenities would also be included on the ground-, podium- and upper-floors. The company wants to attract longer-term residents and those elements, he said, contribute to a sense of place.
“There’s a lot that goes into it aside from just building an apartment,” he said. “It really has to have a sense of community within the building.”
He said he doesn’t yet have a solid development cost.
GGLO is working with the city of Boise’s new development process after it revamped its zoning code in 2023. The new code allows for unlimited building height downtown, but Canady said GGLO would limit the tower to 40 stories, though the final building could be shorter.
“There’s still a lot to figure out,” Canady said. “(The new code) did introduce a whole new process and additional regulatory things that we’re still working through.”
The property is owned by Front Street Holdings, which lists Redmond, Washington, investor and marketing executive J. Patrick Wiley as governor.
Building a Boise landmark
GGLO has already left a sizable thumbprint on the city over the last decade, with public projects including Rhodes Skate Park, Cherie Buckner-Webb Park and Boise City Hall Plaza. GGLO has also designed several apartments in or near downtown Boise, including Jules on 3rd and the Gibson.
Canady said the building would be a visual landmark, and his team is taking cues from the urban layout and architecture of Boise, along with figuring out what the building would look like from different viewpoints.
“It’s an interesting design problem when you’re creating something that’s a part of the skyline,” he said.
GGLO, Canady said, tries to understand the context of a site, street, neighborhood and city before drawing a building, and how people may relate to it through a circular experience. People can see the entire building from far away, then in portions closer up, he said. They then transition through the entry and into a semipublic area, then into the more private inner spaces and finally their own spaces, where they can look back out over the city.
“We really try to capture that story of what that experience is at each of those places in that circle,” Canady said. “We try to design the building so that it speaks to people.”
A booming Boise area
Whatever the complete building looks like, it could cap a wild transformation for the area.
The building would sit on the edge of a nine-block square of downtown Boise that has seen some of the most extensive development in the city in recent years.
Besides sharing the block with the incoming dual-brand Marriott AC and Element hotel, the site sits two blocks east of the Broadstone Saratoga apartments, which are expected to open their first units this spring.
Those additions join Hotel Renegade and the Sparrow hotel, which opened in 2024 across the street to the site’s north and northwest; and the Arthur, which opened in early 2025 two blocks northwest.
The building is not without its risks. Other developers have pulled out of projects in Boise or pressed the pause button in 2022 and 2023, as interest rates and construction costs soared and a labor shortage persisted.
Some areas, such as Boise’s West End, have continued to see vacant lots as those plans sit in wait for better market conditions.
Canady said he could only speak as the architect of the project, but that the companies are thinking long term.
“A project like this won’t actually be hitting the market for a number of years,” he said. “We have a long phase of design, permitting, then construction — the market this would be entering into wouldn’t be today’s market.
“Boise, the Treasure Valley, Idaho, overall, is on a trajectory,” he said. “Over the long-term, downtown Boise has a lot of value.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
