‘Full steam ahead’: New plans emerge for long-awaited town center in Harris Ranch
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- High Rhodes aims for openings in late 2028 or early 2029, depending on schedules.
- Planned design shows 316 apartments, 66 townhomes and a 100-room hotel, subject to change.
- Plans include a 12,000 sq ft specialty grocery and about 75,000–90,000 sq ft commercial.
More than two decades after Harris Ranch broke ground in Boise’s Barber Valley, the planned community has grown to the size of a small city.
Soon, it may get its long-awaited town center.
California developer High Rhodes hopes to break ground on the 6-acre mixed-use project this time next year, partner Steven Hillgren told the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday, a few days after the firm unveiled a batch of new-look renderings in a presentation to the Barber Valley Neighborhood Association.
The total build time depends on some partners’ schedules, Hillgren said, but he expects his firm’s portion of work to take about 18 months, meaning buildings and amenities could open to the public late 2028 or early 2029.
“We’re full steam ahead,” Hillgren said.
The updated plans swerve from past iterations for the three-block span between Warm Springs Road and Wolf Tree Street near Marianne Williams Park. But the core concept — public space, retail, apartments and townhomes — remains intact six-plus years into High Rhodes’ involvement.
Numbers and layout could change, Hillgren said. For now, High Rhodes is planning on 316 apartments around “food-focused” retail spaces bound by a hotel to the south and 66 townhomes to the north. In between, a pedestrian avenue will link the two ends — and their small public parks.
Key to the plan is a much clamored-for market. The closest grocery store today is about a 2.5-mile drive from the planned commercial development. The design presented on May 14 envisions a 12,000-square-foot “specialty grocery store concept” near Warm Springs Avenue, Hillgren said. That’s about a third the size of a small Albertsons — closer to a small Trader Joe’s, but larger than a convenience store.
Hillgren said his firm is in contact with retailers for the space but wasn’t ready to announce a front-runner.
Same with another nearby addition: a 100-room hotel. The hotel was added to the project since the Statesman last reported on plans in 2025. The new design calls for the hotel to sit along Warm Springs Avenue, which Hillgren said has proven to be a busier thoroughfare than Parkcenter Boulevard two blocks north. Hillgren said High Rhodes was in contact with a hospitality group interested in the location, but would not say more on Tuesday.
As drawn, those two buildings anchor the traffic-heavy south side of the plot, shielding a public lawn and green space from cars and a parking lot. For the design, High Rhodes turned to Atlanta-based architects Nelson Worldwide. Nelson worked on similar — if much larger — mixed-use developments in the suburbs of Atlanta that Hillgren hopes Harris Ranch can emulate.
The long, central promenade and “village green” that anchored previous concepts has been replaced by a layout that “encourages meandering and exploring,” Hillgren said. His firm’s reason: Harris Ranch has Marianne Williams and, soon, Alta Harris parks; it doesn’t have developed public space. About 5 of the 6-acre stretch will be open to the public, according to High Rhodes’ presentation. That includes retail space. High Rhodes partner Brad Hillgren’s presentation to the Barber Valley neighbors called for building nearly 90,000 square feet of commercial space, though Steven Hillgren said the total depends on how the market responds.
“If we do 75,000 (square feet), this place will be absolutely humming,” he said, “and we’d be thrilled.”
It’s too soon for leasing, but Steven Hillgren expects the businesses to be “heavy on food,” with some soft goods and a few other offices.
“We know how retail-deprived this area is,” he said. “We’re not going to pack it with a bunch of dentists and insurance agents.”
Brad Hillgren said that 12,000 people live within a five-minute drive of the property. The design he presented features 681 parking spaces to be shared across all users. But Steve Hillgren took care to emphasize that, from most of the property, you won’t be able to see the cars.
“You’re not going to feel like you’re standing in a big parking field,” he said.
“We’re extremely excited,” he added. “The plan we’ve got, we think it’s very unique — it’s not something built in Boise to date. We can’t wait to get it off the ground.”