Apartments, offices, stores planned for this building in popular part of Garden City

Several years ago, the nonprofit Life’s Kitchen bought a third of an acre in a rapidly redeveloping section of Garden City near the Boise River. The group’s goal was to move its operation there from a city-owned low-income housing complex in a former motel at 1025 S. Capitol Blvd. in Boise.

Those plans are moving ahead, and neighbors are cheering it on. Late last month, Boise developer Kilmainham Holdings filed an application for city permits to build a four-story, nearly 40,000-square-foot building on Life’s Kitchen’s lot on the southwest corner of 34th and Clay streets.

Life’s Kitchen would have space on the first and second floors, according to the proposed layout. A store of some kind would occupy 4,750 square feet on the first floor. Parking would take up most of the second. Twenty-two apartments would be on the third and fourth floors, both of which would have open-air spaces.

The plan is too preliminary to know crucial details such as how much the building will cost and whether it will look like renderings on file with the city, said Tammy Johnson, Life’s Kitchen executive director. The group hopes to move within two years. It would own the space it occupies but not the rest, she said.

‘Serving second chances’

Life’s Kitchen was established in December 2001. Its motto, printed on a sign announcing that the Garden City is its future home, is “serving second chances.”

The group teaches at-risk people ages 16-20 how to work in restaurants as cooks, servers or other employees. That way, Johnson said, “no matter where these youths go, they always have a skill.”

Life’s Kitchen participants arrive at the program through a variety of paths. Some take part in the 16-week program to satisfy probation requirements. Some are referred by their schools, friends or family.

Life’s Kitchen graduates 35-40 in a typical year, she said.

First out of the foxhole?

Neighbors of the Garden City property like the plan.

“The design is insane,” said Brennan Conroy, co-owner of Push and Pour, a coffee shop on the corner of 34th and Carr streets — one block north of the Life’s Kitchen property.

Conroy said he and his partner, Lucas Erlebach, are happy someone plans to build something — anything — in the area. He was surprised, though that it will take so long for the Life’s Kitchen building to take shape. The area, known as the Live Work Create district, is hot, with developers planning all kinds of commercial and residential construction. So far, though, few of those plans have borne fruit.

Hannah Ball is one of those developers. Ball owns dozens of lots in the triangle of Garden City between the Boise River, Chinden Boulevard and Veterans Memorial Parkway. She has big plans for the 34th Street corridor.

Ball said Monday she plans to apply for permits in the next three months to build commercial, residential, parking and public open space along 34th Street. She hopes to break ground by early 2020 and complete the project by mid-2021.

Life’s Kitchen might be an ally, she said, because it could set a precedent for mixed-use development in the area.

“I’m excited about their project,” Ball said. “It’s going to be good for the area, and I’m happy they’re leading the way on 34th Street.”

It’s unclear whether the apartments in the Life’s Kitchen building will offer luxury or low-income units — or something in between. A Kilmainham representative did not return a phone call.

Plans for the Life’s Kitchen building in Garden City were first reported by BoiseDev.

This story was originally published October 23, 2018 at 11:08 AM.