By Janet Wiggins

The Linen District sounds like a good place to get your laundry done or buy some fabric, but it is not what its name implies; at least it won’t be when David Hale gets finished with it. For a little over a year, Hale Development Incorporated has been in the initial phase of a complete reinvention of the six-block area of downtown Boise that goes from 13^th to 16^th and Main to Front, and includes Rhodes Skate Park. Hale deemed this area the Linen District after his purchase of the American Linen Building inspired him to dream up his current concept for the area, and he saw that building as the focal point of what he hopes to create. During the acquisition of the American Linen Building from 2003-2005, Hale noticed several other buildings for sale, and believed that these buildings, as well as the existing businesses in the area, would provide a good foundation on which to build what he hopes will become a new way of living in Boise that will resemble the Pearl District in Portland or downtown Denver. He liked the idea of working with the current infrastructure so he wouldn’t have to build everything from scratch. He admits that it would have been more cost effective to tear down the American Linen Building and build new, but he liked the history that the building had to offer. Hale also says that the diverse architectural styles were a pull as well. The American Linen Building is 100 years old, but the building where Hale’s office is located was built in the 70’s. He likes that all the buildings aren’t of the same style and era.

Hale got his start in residential real estate in Portland where he’s from. He has been in Boise for ten years now, and saw the Linen District as a good bridge into the commercial world that he longed to live in. Hale’s vision is to create an area that will service a group of Boiseans that he believes has been overlooked until now. He wants a place where the creative crowd (artists, musicians, etc.) can work, live, and play with each other. He wants a hip, fun area that is part of downtown Boise, but is also its own unique entity. A glimpse of what he hopes to accomplish can be seen by looking at the first businesses in the Linen District. They are as unique and diverse as the architecture that houses them. Donnie Mac’s Trailer Park Cuisine is the first restaurant to move in and it resides in the old Goodyear Tire Store. Menu items include the “junkyard trailer dog,” “singlewide burger,” spaghetti-o’s, and a dessert made with ding-dongs. The Second Chance Building Materials Center works to keep useable building materials from becoming landfill. You will find progressive art at the Visual Arts Collective, and you’ll see skateboarders doing their thing at Rhodes Park. Interesting, to say the least. Future tenants include another restaurant, a coffee shop, and a mosaic store that also offers classes.

Phase One of Hale’s project will be complete in the next eight months or so when he has acquired and leased the remaining existing buildings. Phase Two will be redeveloping these buildings; Hale wants to build residential units on top of the Furness Building and the building which houses his office. The third and final phase will be the development of parking lots. He believes this project will span the next ten years, and he hopes that as more businesses move into the area, more activity will be generated, making the Linen District the thriving, urban living environment that he envisioned from the beginning.