JUMP’s helix is out of the ground

People driving or walking along the Jack’s Urban Meeting Place construction site in downtown Boise now see a cylindrical structure rising above the fences. That feature is called the helix and it will be the core of the six-story, 65,000-square-foot building, which will include studios, meeting and banquet space and other rooms.

The helix should gain ground quickly, said David Cuoio, spokesman for the project.

“The helix will get about one story higher each week until completion of the concrete pour, which should occur in March,” he said.

Cuoio said that 50 to 60 workers will be at the JUMP site this month. The other main area of work is the underground parking structure.

“The project is back on track and moving forward briskly after being delayed recently by extremely cold weather,” Cuoio said.

The JUMP project is now set to open sometime in 2015. Last year, when the J. R. Simplot Co. announced it will build a separate office tower on the site, JUMP’s scheduled finish was 2014. Cuoio said that has been rescheduled because the project has been more complex than originally anticipated.

“All of the details mounted up and there were more than we anticipated initially,” he said.

The new 10-story, 300,000-square-foot Simplot headquarters is set to start construction in 2014, with designs and configuration of the building still being determined. JUMP and the Simplot headquarters have the same construction manager, Hoffman Construction, and architectural firm, Adamson Associates. When the tower was first announced in September 2012, Cuoio said construction could start in late 2013.