Boise Development Thread - Part II

[mhays]

When a building has both office and housing, I'd assume they have non-overlapping sets of people. Who wants to be "at work" on their days off? I've known only one person who did that, but he owned the building.

That said, a good downtown has a mix of offices, housing, visitors, etc., which Boise seems to be doing increasingly well at. More housing is a great idea.

[Panner]

Speaking of Bannock, have you heard how the residential units are selling or the commercial space is leasing? I saw they’re renting some of the commercial office space to a flex-work office company (not a great sign imo.)

[Beean]

Originally Posted by Craxo

I went by the boardwalk tower site yesterday, and it seems that they paved over it, turning it into a more permanent parking lot. If the tower is not moving forward because of that, then it’s pretty disappointing that we aren’t getting something in between One Capital and US Bank for a bit.

Shame. The project was meant to get started this year (at least according to the architect site). Really is a missed opportunity.

[Hot_Onions]

https://permits.cityofboise.org/CitizenA...7BI&agencyCode=BOISE&IsToShowInspection=

There's some new information for the Boise Airport terminal and concourse expansion on the city permit page.

[mhays]

This has a bunch of links to documents but they won't open for me, in Chrome or Firefox. Any ideas?

[Hot_Onions]

Originally Posted by mhays

This has a bunch of links to documents but they won't open for me, in Chrome or Firefox. Any ideas?

Hmm, I use chrome and they opened for me, though I do run into the issue of getting them to actually download. Maybe try again and try opening just one at a time, waiting for it to download (Assuming you didn't do that already). I can also share some photos here that are new. Most of the renders are already available elsewhere.

[mhays]

Now I'm getting it. It might be a browser thing. Things eventually download, but there are none of the typical visual cues, including in the download menu.

Or maybe it's Acela. Regardless of city everything they do seems terrible.

[SkyBoi]

Originally Posted by mhays

This has a bunch of links to documents but they won't open for me, in Chrome or Firefox. Any ideas?

You have to open document files then choose any one of the topics from site renderings to colors of exterior building materials to photos of planned concoarse A to the new meet & greet area near the rotunda after that a PDS bar will appear on the top upper right of your screen and hit OPEN and phoof you got it !

[Craxo]

16th and state is now complete. I drove by it today and saw cars going inside it, and there are no signs of construction otherwise.
The building at 23rd and Fairview also looks to be near completion. I think this is a very nice edition to this area of downtown, considering its height and design.
There also seems to be activity at the site between whitewater and 28th streets, and Fairview and Main streets, as there are construction vehicles and dirt piles on site.
The CWI expansion at the river district has a building with steel reaching what I believe to be the 4th floor. I don’t remember how tall that is going to be, but I’m super happy that there is finally stuff going in there.
Lastly, the St. Luke’s expansion has made lots of progress, and the steel has almost reached the height of the old tower by the looks that of it.

[Hot_Onions]

Originally Posted by Craxo

16th and state is now complete. I drove by it today and saw cars going inside it, and there are no signs of construction otherwise.
The building at 23rd and Fairview also looks to be near completion. I think this is a very nice edition to this area of downtown, considering its height and design.
There also seems to be activity at the site between whitewater and 28th streets, and Fairview and Main streets, as there are construction vehicles and dirt piles on site.
The CWI expansion at the river district has a building with steel reaching what I believe to be the 4th floor. I don’t remember how tall that is going to be, but I’m super happy that there is finally stuff going in there.
Lastly, the St. Luke’s expansion has made lots of progress, and the steel has almost reached the height of the old tower by the looks that of it.

I did some mockups of the area. The CWI building is a tad over 60 feet, which is pretty much as tall as the rest of the buildings in that development. There will eventually be a hotel (the brick building), a multi family apartment building, and a parking garage (the structure in the middle). Between 28th and Shoreline is The Finch.

Obviously would have loved to see some more height but at least we are finally doing something with these empty lots. I think it's also good for cities to have lots of 4-8 story buildings to bump up the density. Better than judt having parking lots.

[Evo5Boise]

A couple quick shots of the Rental Car Facility at the airport. I tried to get a photo of the garage itself, but the lighting (and trucks parked in there) didn’t do me any favors...it just didn’t turn out well on my phone. Then again, it pretty much just looks like a parking garage.

The rental car companies still have to come in and build out their spaces, but the main core of the building is just about ready to be turned over to them.

The main rental car lobby.


The pedestrian walkway from the terminal to the parking garage.


The pedestrian walkway is divided into two sections, with a new art piece in between them in an open-air environment.

[Beean]

Is there any new word on 11th and front? Or 8th and River? Or any other rumored high-rise of medium-rise buildings?

[Hot_Onions]

Originally Posted by Beean

Is there any new word on 11th and front? Or 8th and River? Or any other rumored high-rise of medium-rise buildings?

Haven't seen anything for 11th and Front since December. It's possible that they are still working through some permitting revisions. They have a DRH permit listed on the city permit page but there are no files linked to it. The planning and zoning commission seemed to quite like the project and only had some minor concerns with bike storage (I believe). Assuming the project is still alive (I personally am fairly confident) and that they aren't making considerable changes, then I would guess that the developer and architects are just finalizing design permits. I am guessing construction costs aren't super cheap, which could also be a factor.

I've assumed that 8th and River has been canned for quite some time, though I don't think there has been any official announcement.

I believe there have been some plans to eventually build a ~7 story apartment next to Boise Fire Station 5. There's an old BoiseDev article from 2021 that showed a mockup along with the station, which granted is nothing alike to what the final design they ended up going with. As far as I can tell, no permits have been filed for the apartment, but I did notice that a developer filed some permits to consolidate the parcels behind the station, which could be a sign that they eventually plan to move forward with the apartment. Assuming that this project does happen, it'll most definitely not look like the mockup from 2021, and might not even be the same height (might be shorter, probably won't be taller but who knows).

[TVurban]

Originally Posted by Hot_Onions

Haven't seen anything for 11th and Front since December. It's possible that they are still working through some permitting revisions. They have a DRH permit listed on the city permit page but there are no files linked to it. The planning and zoning commission seemed to quite like the project and only had some minor concerns with bike storage (I believe). Assuming the project is still alive (I personally am fairly confident) and that they aren't making considerable changes, then I would guess that the developer and architects are just finalizing design permits. I am guessing construction costs aren't super cheap, which could also be a factor.

I'd also add that when most buildings are submitted for a city review, they're only about 20%-40% designed. Most owner's don't want to commit to a full design until they're certain they can build the project, usually either by securing city approvals or financing). A building as complicated as 11th & Front could take another 9-12 months to fully design from the approval date. And they'll still have to go through the Building Permit review, which will take time on a building of that size.

[Hot_Onions]

Yeah I have to imagine that they are finalizing plans before the DRH. I can't imagine developers want to do a bunch of back and forth with hearings. I would have to guess that they are pretty much set on the overall design, considering that the building looks more or less the same as the original leak a few years ago, and instead are more focused on finalizing the interior layout/space use. Increasing the amount of bike storage and doorway layouts is probably a bit more complicated than it might seem (I'm just guessing, I'm not a developer).

[Craxo]

Went down State street today and it seems that the crane for The Bannock is either coming down or has already come down, as I was not able to see the crane from a position where I usually see the top of the crane.

[SkyBoi]

Originally Posted by Craxo

Went down State street today and it seems that the crane for The Bannock is either coming down or has already come down, as I was not able to see the crane from a position where I usually see the top of the crane.

I was at ST.Luke's Monday and noticed crane was gone , anyway it seems like only the apartment side of the building is finishing up soon but the office part is rather slow , window installment looks sporatic not sure what's going on I'm going to assume lack of man power or skilled laborer's

[don-boisedev]

Originally Posted by Hot_Onions

Yeah I have to imagine that they are finalizing plans before the DRH. I can't imagine developers want to do a bunch of back and forth with hearings. I would have to guess that they are pretty much set on the overall design, considering that the building looks more or less the same as the original leak a few years ago, and instead are more focused on finalizing the interior layout/space use. Increasing the amount of bike storage and doorway layouts is probably a bit more complicated than it might seem (I'm just guessing, I'm not a developer).

Something to keep in mind is that the second DR is approved, the clock starts on expiration. It's two years and can be extended... but if you don't think you'll be building in a near/mid-term time horizon, you don't try to get the DR approved.

[Hot_Onions]

Originally Posted by don-boisedev

Something to keep in mind is that the second DR is approved, the clock starts on expiration. It's two years and can be extended... but if you don't think you'll be building in a near/mid-term time horizon, you don't try to get the DR approved.

Yeah that makes sense. I'm guessing that that happened with the Ovation. The DR was approved in late 2023, and expired last year with no extensions. I assume that the developer was at the time fully ready to break ground. Maybe material/labor costs caused a last minute change? I don't know if they ever made an official statement regarding it.

[mhays]

Generally projects aren't fully prepared to break ground until the night before they break ground. Until then it's always a question.