How 7 men are shaping Downtown Boise's future

By Joe Estrella - jestrella@idahostatesman.com
Edition Date: 06/10/07

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They're the men reshaping the heart of Idaho's capital city. Five, 15 and 25 years from now, the life of Boise's Downtown will be defined to a large degree by these men and their visions for profitable buildings today.

Seven Boise-area developers plan to spend more than $312 million over the next decade in Boise's Downtown. Their projects vary widely, but they share a vision of Downtown as place where people will live, not just work or play.

If their buildings fill as they expect, with nearly 1,000 condominiums, then Downtown — once depressed and largely vacant at night, now a vibrant office and night-life center — will morph yet again, becoming a true neighborhood.

Boise's Downtown will follow a trail like Seattle's, with small housing projects followed by increasingly bigger ones, said Bill Clark, who is building The Jefferson, a $20 million, 43-unit development at the southeast corner of 4th and Jefferson streets.

"First there was a 15-unit development. Then a 50-unit project, then 75 units and, finally, they were building 500 units a year," Clark said.

Boiseans will live with whatever these men create, whether the buildings are beautiful — like Clark's Veltex building at 420 Main St., one of the first condo buildings in Boise — or plain and boxy, like the new Hampton Inn in Mark Rivers' otherwise oft-praised BoDo development.

But whether the architecture boosts civic pride or embarrassment — or both — Downtown will likely become a neighborhood of empty-nesters, singles and employees who want to live in multistory buildings near their work places, not commute from single-family homes with lawns. They'll walk from their homes to stores, restaurants and nightclubs.

These seven men are not a complete pantheon of Downtown development. Their projects don't include the 138 condominiums proposed for the Boise Place development that has replaced the infamous Boise Tower at 8th and Main streets. They don't include 90 units developer David Southers wants to build on a city block bordered by 15th and 16th streets on the east and west, and Idaho and Bannock streets on the north and south. Those projects have run into financing problems.

And there are other condos worth noting, like Scott Kimball's The Aspen, the 70-unit "skinny building" planned at 9th and Front streets; Neighborhood Housing Services' Grand Avenue condos going up at 14th and Grand; Dan and Marlene Appel's 32-unit Paradigm condos planned at 9th and Broad streets; and Doug Jayo's Trappers Island condos planned next to Kathryn Albertson Park.

Most Downtown condos will be for upper-middle and upper-income residents, but some will be lower-income or work force housing. City Councilman Alan Shealy said that 10 years from now the effort big developers are putting into work force housing will produce homes for a cross-section of the Boise population.

"You can't just have steak and caviar," Shealy said. "And it's good to see these developers stepping up and including work force housing in their plans."

The seven developers we interviewed believe the lure of Downtown living is strong enough that the Boise market can easily absorb 250 units a year.

Phil Kushlan, executive director of the Capital City Development Corp., Boise's urban-renewal agency, said he expects more and more retailers will want to call Downtown home as residents move in.

"From what we've learned, one office worker will equal half a square foot of retail. One resident will supply 10 square feet of retail," he said.

Learn more about these seven men in a series of interviews with each of them this week. The first appears today above.

Joe Estrella: 377-6465