Major industrial park in South Boise takes another step forward
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- Boise Planning and Zoning Commission advanced Adler Industrial’s 135-acre Innovator.
- Adler spent $20 million to extend utilities, build roads and clean up contamination.
- Adler’s 1.35 million-square-foot warehouse entitlements expired and were never built.
The Boise Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday accelerated the burgeoning industrial overhaul of Southwest Boise on Monday, unanimously advancing a 135-acre commercial plan off Orchard Street.
Adler Industrial’s “Innovator” business park calls for a mix of 35 commercial and industrial lots on bare land south of the Boise Airport, kitty-corner from the firm’s smaller “Visionary” development across the newly built Innovator Road. Together, the two commercial and industrial parks represent the first steps of Adler and Ball Ventures sprawling Pleasant Valley planned community, which envisions 465 industrial and commercial acres across four subdivisions on the edge of the city.
The Innovator development still needs City Council approval. But in the years ahead, it and similar business parks appear the trend for the area the city refers to as “South Airport,” a new planning zone that Boise Mayor Lauren McLean previously called “perfect for industrial development.”
Adler has already spent $20 million extending utilities, building roadways and conducting an extensive environmental cleanup of the area, which includes a historic trash dump off Orchard, according to Patrick Connor, a senior development manager at Adler.
The company also agreed to donate a portion of the property to Boise to build a firehouse, a condition of approval recommended by city staff.
“We’re happy to partner with the city as we look to open up this area,” Connor said.
Orchard Street a speed bump for growth
It won’t happen right away. Connor said the three-phase project is “going to take years” to build, and a lot can happen in the meantime. Orchard Street, which jogs awkwardly around the one-time dump at Gowen Road, in particular needs to change, according to both Ada County Highway District and Boise city reports. Right now, the road’s north and south legs don’t meet, hitting Gowen Road about 1,500 feet apart.
ACHD staff is asking Adler to commit to building temporary intersections at the awkward intersection, though Connor said the firm prefers committing money toward a permanent realignment instead. The Community Planning Agency of Southwest Idaho, or COMPASS, estimated in 2021 that would cost $22.4 million.
That conversation is “ongoing” with ACHD as the two sides calculate the subdivision’s impact on regional traffic. But Connor acknowledged that moving the road is “ultimately the solution for this area.”
“We don’t want to spend millions of dollars to have intersections go in, just to be torn out when the Orchard Street realignment happens,” Connor said.
‘A lot of history’ behind plan
Land developers have had the Orchard Street area on their radar for years. In 2022, Adler and a consortium of partners applied to build a 1.35 million-square-foot warehouse on the property. Rumors — unconfirmed — swirled that Amazon would take it over for a new Treasure Valley distribution hub, with preliminary drawing rendered in the Seattle giant’s color palate. Those plans never got off the page, Connor said, and the entitlements that backed it have since expired.
“There’s some history to this project,” Connor said Monday.
In 2024, Pleasant Valley Land Holdings II, an Adler subsidiary, bought 521 additional acres in the area, the real estate broker Colliers reported at the time.
The newer plan calls for more, smaller lots, occupied by a mix of retail, commercial and industrial businesses.
The Innovator park would be next to the forthcoming Barnwood neighborhood, a residential and business plaza associated the CBH Homes’ expanding Locale planned community.
“This whole area is coming together, and we look forward to working with our neighbors,” Connor said.