Union Block, Boise affordable housing, a criminal’s release — stories you maybe missed

From a revived legal battle over a well-known downtown Boise block to a new restaurant on the Bench and a new affordable housing complex for older residents, here’s a look at some of the Idaho Statesman’s top stories the past 36 hours.

• The owner of Boise’s condemned Union Block building, Kenneth Howell, has appealed his March court loss and filed a new lawsuit against the city, arguing that the condemnation decision was arbitrary. A U.S. District Court judge ruled in March that Boise officials had evidence to support condemning the downtown building and were protected because they were performing job responsibilities.
• Sycamore Commons, a new affordable housing complex for residents 55 and older, opened 53 apartments Tuesday at the former Good Samaritan Society site on N. Sycamore Drive in Boise’s Collister neighborhood. The $9.8 million Sycamore Commons project was funded through $5 million in tax-credit financing from the Idaho Housing and Finance Association, plus $1 million from donors.
• The USDA announced an expansion of its Migratory Big Game program to 17 states in the West, helping farmers and ranchers preserve wildlife migration corridors on private land using Farm Bill funding. Federal officials spent $146.7 million between 2022 and 2025 on conservation projects across more than 1.2 million acres, focusing on elk, pronghorn and mule deer migration routes.
• Austin Holbrook, 22, was released from prison April 30 after serving less than a year of a sentence for molesting a 12-year-old Nampa girl he drove to Kennewick, Washington. The Canyon County Prosecutor’s Office dropped a lewd conduct charge against Holbrook in July 2025, saying additional prosecution would not result in meaningful additional punishment after his Washington conviction.
• Lost River Tavern, a new restaurant and bar focused on family-style pizza and comfort food, is planned for a 3,400-square-foot building at 110 N. Orchard St. on the Boise Bench. A patio is also in the works for the space.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.