In Boise, a hotel mini-boom is in the works

The Gardner Company is entering Boise’s burgeoning hotel business with plans to break ground on a 100-room structure by the end of the year.

Gardener CEO Tommy Ahlquist, builder of downtown’s tallest building at Eighth and Main, wouldn’t say where the company will build its hotel.

But “absolutely, we are looking at a hotel,” Ahlquist said. “We’re planning right now. We’re getting a deal structure together.”

Clay Carley, general manager of Old Boise and a partner at The Owyhee, said several hoteliers are talking to him about building a hotel on property he owns. He said it was too early in the process to release more details.

Boise’s downtown core has only five large hotels right now: The Grove, Hampton Inn & Suites, Hotel 43, The Modern Hotel and the Safari Inn. Only two large hotels, The Grove and the Hampton Inn, have been built downtown in the last 18 years.

But this month, former Eugene, Ore., mayor Brian Obie submitted a design review application with the city Planning and Development Services to build a 104-room Inn at 500 Capitol boutique hotel at Capitol and Myrtle. A week earlier, Jared S. Smith announced his plans for a 160- to 190-room branded hotel at the same intersection.

“There is no competition at our level,” Obie said. “This hotel is a high-end, luxury, nearly five-star hotel.”

Boise needs more hotel rooms, said Bill Connors, CEO of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce. “Business travel has really picked up and I only see it growing more with Albertsons back now and the Simplot world headquarters (under construction).”

But Pat Rice, executive director of the Boise Centre, noted that while the new hotels will serve business travelers well, they won’t necessarily help the Boise Centre book more conferences.

“(These two new hotels are) not what we need to book larger conferences,” said Rice. He’s looking for a hotel with about 4o0 rooms to go on what is called Parcel B, a dirt parking lot just went of the JUMP construction site downtown.

“We need a full-service, convention center quality hotel,” Rice said.

The Boise Convention & Visitors Bureau needs to be able to book blocks of 280 to 440 rooms near the convention center in advance for conferences, said Carrie Westergard, the bureau’s new executive director.

Both of the recently proposed hotels would sit at the same intersection as the Hampton Inn & Suites, which was built in 2007.

“It’s going to bring more travelers downtown,” said Erik Hansen, the Hampton Inn’s general manager, of the planned hotel construction. “It will help downtown grow.”

The Grove Hotel was the first towering hotel on Capitol Boulevard. These two proposed hotels would create a hotel row with four towers on Capitol.

“It was just a matter of time until more rooms were added to the market,” Grove CEO John Cunningham said. “Will it have an impact on us? In the short term, yes, but it’s good for the market.”

Downtown Boise has 690 to 1,200 hotel rooms, depending on how far you want to walk. The five hotels in the downtown core add up to 690 rooms. The Red Lion, Courtyard Boise, TownPlace Suites and Residence Inn consider themselves downtown, though they are all about a mile away from downtown towers.

Jared S. Smith indicated he would approach the Capital City Develop Corp. to enter into a public-private partnership to build and operate a parking garage for his hotel, as CCDC has done with the Grove, Hampton Inn and Hotel 43.

CCDC Executive Director John Brunelles said the hotel announcements were a sign of a strong economy.

“But these are just announcements,” Brunelle said. “You take them at their word and make sure to get them into pre-development.”

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Eugene developer wants to give Boise a luxury boutique hotel

Brian Obie believes Boise is the right place to build his second boutique hotel after trying out his concept in Eugene, Ore.

He just submitted an application for a design review on March 10 for a similar, seven-story, 107-room boutique hotel in Boise that he’s calling Inn at 500 Capitol for its address at Capitol Boulevard and Myrtle Street.

Obie was Eugene’s mayor in the 1980s, and built his hotel there, the Inn at the 5th, three years ago. Now he’s planning a Market District housing project in Eugene with a mix of condos and workforce housing.

Obie said he wanted to replicate the Inn at the 5th elsewhere.

“We went on a search across the western United States,” Obie said. He’s establishing a foundation for his grandson, Casey Obie Barrett, who is collaborating with Obie on the hotels. “We’re in a generational thing here.”

Boise State University, Albertsons and the future Simplot corporate headquarters intrigued Obie. He added he doesn’t see comparable luxury hotels in Boise to compete with his.

“They’re not at our level,” Obie said about Hotel 43 and The Modern Hotel.

Obie describes his inns as “five-star except for not having a pool.” He noted every room has a “butler’s closet” where guests can retrieve their room service deliveries without opening the door of the hotel room. A Mercedes Benz sedan and van will be used to shuttle patrons about in Boise.

Each Boise room will have a small fireplace, art displays, and two sinks.

Barrett added: “That’s the number one thing requested by women. They want two sinks.”

Obie anticipates an average room rate of $220 a night, ranging from $165 to $380 and more, the same rates charged in Eugene.

“Boise and Eugene really have a similar (business) climate,” Barrett said. “We provide a service that wasn’t there. We want to be part of the community. We want to be plugged in with the arts, plugged in with the university.”

Obie Development Partners, where Obie is president and Barrett the vice president, have a 120-year lease on the property from Hawkins Companies for the Inn at 500 Capitol. Obie anticipates starting construction in August with an estimated completion in late 2016.