Parcel B could see hotel construction before the year is done

Gardner Co. intends to start construction on a 200-room hotel this fall on the so-called Parcel B – the dirt parking lot bounded by Myrtle, Front, 11^th and 13^th streets.

Gardner Chief Operating Officer Tommy Ahlquist said he expects to be in design review later in summer with the city’s Planning & Development Services Department and have a property exchange agreement in place with the Greater Boise Auditorium District, which owns the 5.02-acre Parcel B.

Ahlquist did not announce the name of a hotel operator at a June 25 GBAD board meeting.

“We’re so darn close,” Ahlquist told the board.

The hotel could be open 18 months to two years after construction starts, he said.

In trademark Gardner fashion, the Parcel B project is moving at lightning speed, as did Gardner’s proposal and construction of the Eighth and Main office and retail building downtown and the City Center Plaza construction now underway.

Gardner entered into a memorandum of understanding with GBAD on April 9 for an exclusive right for six months to evaluate Parcel B for its development potential. Instead, in just over two months the local architectural firm Babcock Design has drawn up an 11-story hotel plus an 800-car garage and an apartment complex with an undetermined number of units.

The estimated cost for the hotel, apartments and garage is $60 million, Ahlquist said.

Gardner will propose a property exchange to acquire Parcel B, which was appraised for $8 million in 2014.

Boise Centre Executive Director Pat Rice plans to propose the $8 million value of Parcel B to the $19 million cost of Phase 1A expansion of the Boise Centre.

“Hopefully at the end of the day, I will write a check for $11 million for Phase 1A,” Rice said. “This transaction with Gardner will allow me to move forward immediately with the concourse.”

Until now, Rice was uncertain when he would have been able to build the elevated, enclosed concourse that wraps around the CenturyLink Arena entrance to link the Boise Centre expansion with the 25-year-old Boise Centre, which GBAD owns.

The Gardner Hotel project would put a punctuation point right at the Connector ramps – the first downtown venue drivers into downtown Boise will see.

“We love the location,” Ahlquist said. “It’s great for the hotel. There’s not a better place to be.”

Ahlquist did acknowledge that Myrtle and Front streets present barriers to pedestrians, and he referred to Parcel B as an island.

But “once you get on the island, it’s a good island to be on,” Ahlquist said.

Ahlquist talked about walkability within the project, with east-west and north-south walkways.

“We went to some of our neighbors and asked them what was important,” he said. “It was important that it did not become a superblock and that it remain walkable.”

Ahlquist proposed placing the hotel in the Front/11^th quadrant, the garage in the Front/13^th quadrant and the apartments in the Myrtle/11^th quadrant. The fourth quadrant for now would remain surface parking but might hold a hotel or office building later.

“Our goal is to do the hotel and apartments at the same time,” Ahlquist said. “We have explored retail with several sources. It becomes a little difficult because of the island. We’d love to have some retail.”

In April, there was talk of a soccer stadium alongside the hotel. Ahlquist and David Wali, Gardner’s executive vice present, met several times with local soccer entities.

“Unfortunately, as we began designing the hotel, it became very apparent this site would not work for both,” Ahlquist said.

Gardner Co., however, remains intrigued by the prospect of a soccer stadium elsewhere to host a minor-league soccer team, he said.

Editor’s note: This article was updated at 2:55 p.m. June 26 with comments from Pat Rice at the Boise Centre.