Written by Joe Estrella, Business Writer, The Idaho Statesman
www.idahostatesman.com

Three local business owners who have committed to developer David Hale's Linen District conceptare:

• Don MacKenzie, founder of the defunct MacKenzie River Pizza chain in Boise, will lease 3,750 square feet in the Goodyear Tire Building. He plans to use the existing automotive facilities when he opens donnie mac's Trailer Park Cuisine next October.

The idea is to create a replica of an old desert roadside cafe that incorporates the building's abandoned auto-garage equipment. He'll use one of nine abandoned hydraulic lifts that were once used for tire changes and brake, oil and lube jobs as a table. Another lift will hold an elevated car with the top removed. The open car will become a table with seats. Customers will access the raised vehicle by climbing a metal stairway.

Customers also will sit at counters made of pickup truck beds, each with two retro leather motorcycle seats set on springs.
MacKenzie believes the unusual nature of his restaurant fits right in with the "funky" atmosphere Hale wants to create in the Linen District.

"David is a developer that likes to think outside the box," MacKenzie said. "This will fit in with his unique approach to the development."

• Samuel and Anneliessa Stimpert have more cultural ideas in mind. The two will open their new Visual Arts Collective gallery in the new Furness Building.

"It will be an opportunity for artists to show their work," says Stimpert. "This Linen District project will give Boise a cultural district like other cities have."

Stimpert said that many of the people moving into the Treasure Valley come from big cities where they were able to enjoy the arts.
• Sarah Fendley, owner of Big City Coffee at 5517 W. State St., plans to open a second shop in the American Linen Building. She hopes to lure customers drawn to a coffee shop that does all its own baking.

• Bill Martin, owner of Metro Express Car Wash, said he has seen how small steps like the one taken by Hale can lead to bigger things.
In 1996, Martin opened a new car wash in a rundown section of Spokane, Wash. Before long, the increased traffic coming into the area convinced businesses like CompUSA, Wendy's, Holiday Inn, and Hollywood Video to move there, he said.

"We could see the same dynamics here," says Martin.