Downtown Boise hotel project withdraws application

Charlotte, N.C.-based Ram Development has withdrawn its proposal to build a 106-room hotel next to Whole Foods on Myrtle Street in downtown Boise.

Ever since five new downtown Boise hotels were announced within a three-month span this spring, there had been conjecture regarding which one would drop out first.

The Ram hotel was the sixth proposed downtown hotel when it applied for a conditional use permit at Boise Planning and Development Services on Aug. 25. Ram subsequently asked to delay an Oct. 12 hearing with the Boise Planning & Zoning Commission.

 “They have withdrawn their application,” said Cody Riddle, planning manager at Boise Planning & Development Services. “They would have to start over.”

The conditional use permit is an initial step that precedes design review, the first step in the permitting process.

Of the six downtown proposals, Ram presented the least detailed proposals and Ram officials never spoke with Boise media.

Ram officials did not respond to Idaho Business Review phone calls or e-mails.

“They are looking at alternative sites. That one didn’t fit well for them,” said Tamara Thompson, director of client services at The Land Group, the Eagle-based landscape architecture, civil engineering and planning firm that worked with Ram in the permitting process.

Thompson did not know where else Ram was looking to site a hotel.

Ram Development is an affiliate of Ram Realty Services, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Both focus their attention on the southeastern states. Ram Development builds retail, multifamily and mixed-use projects for investment partnerships, according to the Ram website.

The Ram project is the second hotel proposal to be withdrawn from the 1.7-acre lot next to Whole Foods. The original development plan for Whole Foods in 2007 included a 17-story hotel and condo tower, proposed by Schlosser Development of Austin, Texas,  but that was scaled back to seven stories in 2008 and the hotel was eliminated by 2010 during  the depth of the recession.

Schlosser Development in 2011 filed a drawing with Boise Planning & Development Services for a 12-story office building with eight floors of office space, three floors of parking, and ground-floor retail for the land between Whole Foods and Myrtle Street. That plan never proceeded. The land is owned by the Metolius Trust of Lake Oswego, Ore.