Auditorium District pays off existing convention center 

The Greater Boise Auditorium District board in June paid off the approximately $1.9 million in debt that remained on the 87,000-square-foot Boise Centre on the Grove convention facility at Ninth and Front streets downtown, Boise Centre on the Grove General Manager Pat Rice said. The district saved about $100,000 by paying off the remaining debt in June instead of at the Dec. 1, 2009, deadline, he said.

Cash reserves to pay off the remaining debt came from net proceeds from operations and from lodging room tax in the district, he said. The district generated $1.1 million in net operating income in the fiscal year ended last Nov. 30. The room tax in October 2007 increased from 4 percent to 5 percent.

The money saved “will help us as we move forward with construction of the new building,” he said.

Rice said the auditorium district “owns the building now without any encumbrances, and the land down the street without any encumbrances.”

The district aims to occupy an additional convention building tabbed for a downtown Boise site it owns from 11th to 13th streets and from Front to Myrtle streets.  The district in January bought a first right of repurchase from Simplot family entity S-Sixteen.

A construction and opening schedule is not set for the 128,000-square-foot, $35 million additional convention building, Rice said. The district would lease the building from John Q. Hammons  – who would build and own a $65 million, 256-room hotel adjacent to the convention building.

The existing convention building at Ninth and Front cost just over $10 million, and opened in January 1990.  It was refinanced at a lower interest rate in 1993, Rice said.

There was no penalty for paying off the remaining debt early, he said. Wells Fargo was the trustee for the debt, which was in the form of certificates of participation.

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