Buffalo Wild Wings to open in downtown Boise in 2016

Buffalo Wild Wings is planning to open a sports bar on the first floor of the Clearwater Building in the City Center Plaza development in downtown Boise.

By the time it opens in the fall of 2016, it will be the seventh Buffalo Wild Wings in Idaho and third in the Treasure Valley. A location in Moscow is also under construction.

Doug Davis, one of the owners of Buffalo Wild Wings locations in Idaho, northern Nevada and Wyoming, said he’s been looking for a location in downtown Boise for several years, but couldn’t find an ideal spot.

“Finding the right location downtown is critical. You can be a block off and be unsuccessful,” Davis said, saying he wanted a space in the four-block area between Capitol Boulevard and Ninth Street on the east and west, and Bannock and Main streets on the north and south. “Anything outside that spectrum is a challenge.”

Gardner Co., the developer of the multi-building City Center Plaza project that surrounds its U.S. Bank Building on the corner of Capitol and Main, should have the ground floor of the project, 20,000 square feet of available space, fully leased when the building opens, according to executive vice president David Wali.

Wali said the ground floor will mainly be restaurants and bars, though the rest of the space is still in negotiations. Gardner and several potential tenants are still sorting out potential tenant improvement costs and rents. Gardner is also working on having the right variety of tenants.

“You’ve got to make sure it’s the right mix when it’s all said and done,” Wali said.

Just the first floor of the approximately $70 million project is seeking restaurant and retail tenants. Buffalo Wild Wings will be in a nine-story building that serves as the new headquarters for Clearwater Analytics and will house the Boise State University computer science department. The Boise Centre will also have a five-story building that, in addition to a floor of restaurants, will have two floors of parking and an underground transit center. In total, the development will have approximately 370,946 square feet of space.

Buffalo Wild Wings, based in Minneapolis, has locations in Nampa, Meridian, Twin Falls, Pocatello and Idaho Falls. A 5,250-square-foot space is being built at 1710 W. Pullman Road in Moscow. Davis said the location should cater to University of Idaho and Washington State University students.

“We think that there’s a need there. Between Pullman and Moscow, the two college towns, we should do well,” he said.

Davis said the restaurants typically open with around 100 employees, but “settle down” to a regular staff of 75 to 80 employees. D.A. Bentley Construction of Vancouver, Wash. is the general contractor on the Moscow location, which should open before March.