Burlington, Big O Tires stores on Fairview could be redeveloped as 235 apartments
The Burlington clothing store on Fairview Avenue in West Boise could soon be transformed into a nine-building apartment and retail complex.
A Utah-based developer has submitted plans to redevelop the Burlington Coat Factory and Big O Tires at 7201 W. Fairview Avenue into a 235-unit multifamily apartment complex with 11,000 square feet of first-floor retail.
The nine buildings on the site would be three stories tall, or about 42 feet. In total, the project would measure 200,420 square feet, and feature a clubhouse and pool.
“You’re seven minutes from downtown, four minutes from I-84, another four minutes to the south you have the mall,” said Bruce Bastian, a project manager for the developer, JB Earl Co. of Springville, Utah, which has worked on several infill and transit-oriented projects around Salt Lake City.
As Boise urbanizes, developers have mostly targeted downtown lots for mixed-use redevelopment. But some have begun to bring urban projects further west to help meet a demand for housing in areas beyond downtown.
“Projects like this are a direct response to the housing crisis,” Bastian said in a phone interview. “The leases for these retail tenants are coming up, and it makes more sense at this time to transition to a mixed-use solution.”
The Burlington property is owned by Steven Usdan of the Los Angeles-based Kornwasser Realty Advisors, which owns a variety of aging strip malls and big-box storefronts around the country. The project is slated to cost about $30 million, Bastian estimated.
Though the project is located on the No. 7 Valley Regional Transit bus line on Fairview, it will still include 224 parking spaces, four more than the city’s requirement of 220 spaces. Some of those spaces will be on the first floor of the apartment complex, but most will be surface parking spots.
“It’s a prime location for maximizing public transit infrastructure that’s existing,” Bastian said. “If they have to drive, it’s likely to be a lot shorter commute.”
Sure, Fairview Avenue isn’t a “pedestrian paradise” today, Bastian said.
“But working toward that is a longterm strategy,” he added.
The apartments will cater to mostly to young professionals and seniors. They will rent at market rate.
The architect, Michael Conroe of the Buffalo, New York firm Architectural Resources, said he wanted the project to “break up the monotony you get going down a suburban street.”
“We try to be different and have non-typical residential projects,” Conroe said in an interview. He said the lines in the project were inspired by Boise’s street grid, which creates angles and irregularities as it approaches the Boise River.
Bastian said that he hopes to have the project approved sometime in 2020, with construction starting in late 2020 or early 2021.
Across Cole Road west of that site, Primary Health is building an urgent care and family medicine clinic. Bluebird Express is also planning a car wash on another lot on that property, where the old Cole Elementary School sat.
Maverik Inc. had planned to locate a gas station and convenience store on the corner but later abandoned those plans.
The project was first reported on by BoiseDev.com.
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 3:26 PM.
