Developer of proposed Boise stadium just bought a nearby bar. Here’s what that means
A bar near the potential site of a new Boise stadium was bought by an agency of the stadium developer, a step toward potential development in the area.
HBCBP LLC bought The Symposion at 2801 W. Fletcher St., about a block from where the stadium might be, according to an Ada County Assessor’s Office record.
The purchase, first reported by BoiseDev.com, appears to have taken place in the last few weeks.
“The purchase is part of the land acquisition process by the private developer that has been ongoing for several months and will continue as the developer puts together the pieces to make the project possible,” said Todd Dvorak, a Boise publicist representing the developer, Atlanta’s Greenstone Properties, in an email.
Greenstone plans to build a baseball and soccer stadium between Main Street and Fairview Avenue and between 27th Street and Whitewater Park Boulevard, west of Downtown and near the Boise River.
Managing Principal Chris Schoen has been working to assemble properties in and around that location for the stadium itself, parking and surrounding development. Schoen also runs Agon Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Boise Hawks minor-league baseball team.
Until last summer, Schoen had planned the stadium for a space that once housed a Kmart store on Americana Boulevard just north of the river that until last year was used by St. Luke’s Health System for offices. Last summer, that property was sold to another developer after Schoen changed his planned location.
Schoen’s project would rely in part on urban-renewal money from Boise. Concern about that helped prompt a bill, now making its way through the Idaho House, that would require a citizen vote before a city spends any urban-renewal money on a public building.
Dvorak said via phone that he could not comment on any other plans to buy other parcels in that area.
Mike Journee, communications director for Boise Mayor David Bieter, said a timeline for the stadium depends on the developers. Bieter favors the stadium.
“We understand that [the developer] is bringing together properties as part of a new proposal,” Journee said. “We’re eager to see it.”
The Symposion remains open. On Facebook, the bar bills itself as “the neighborhood bar without a neighborhood.” Fletcher is a short street squeezed between Fairview Avenue and the I-184 Connector just east of the Boise River. There is little else in the immediate area of the bar, althougha new St. Luke’s development is behing built across 27th Street.
Business Editor David Staats contributed.
This story was originally published March 7, 2019 at 4:56 PM.
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