Sick of driving across town? Boise may get 40-acre shopping center near airport
As Boise’s population booms and more people fill up the once-sparse edges south of the city, residents have complained about the increased traffic. A newly proposed shopping and office center near the Boise Airport may decrease the need to make the drive across town.
With 264,000 square feet of tenant space, the Shops at Pleasant Valley would span 40 acres at 6310 S. Orchard St., just south of the airport.
It would be the first section of the 520-acre Pleasant Valley Business Park being built by Pleasant Valley Land Holdings, which consists of Adler Industrial, Ball Ventures Ahlquist and Sawtooth Investment Management. The rest of the park would focus on industrial projects.
The Shops at Pleasant Valley would include 17 buildings, many of which would be home to multiple tenants. A 125-room hotel could be added in the future.
Fourteen buildings in the commercial area would be dedicated to traditional office or retail space, ranging in size from 4,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet. The final three would be “flex” buildings for businesses that need different types of spaces under one roof.
Developers are focused on bringing in “anything that services households,” said Tommy Ahlquist, Ball Ventures Ahlquist CEO. This might mean grocery stores, home improvement stores, fast food restaurants and more.
“All that (home) development over there is kind of untapped,” Ahlquist said by phone.
Ahlquist believes two Ada County Highway District projects will play a pivotal role in “unlocking” that area: The extension of Lake Hazel Road from Orchard Street to Memory Road, and the $19 million plan to realign and widen Orchard Street from Gowen Road to Victory Road into five lanes with sidewalks and bikeways.
“With the realignment, that road will become the major access point to all that area,” Ahlquist said. “People will be able to kind of avoid the whole Cole Road interchange [on Interstate 84], which right now is kind of heavily used for everything.”
Utility work on the site has already begun, with construction crews putting in water and sewer systems. Pleasant Valley Land Holdings has started discussions with the city to annex and rezone 41 acres that the developers had not yet purchased when Boise annexed the surrounding area last year.
The developers hope to begin construction of Phase 1 next spring or summer, with the first businesses opening in summer 2024.
