Idaho Business Review IBR
The new Grove Plaza will have fewer trees than the existing plaza, and a number of shade umbrellas. Image courtesy of Capital City Development Corp.
Fencing work started at the Grove Plaza May 19 in preparation for the removal of bricks, trees and the fountain. A new version of Grove Plaza will emerge in November.
The removal of more than 200,000 bricks and three dozen trees is starting the week of May 23, said Doug Woodruff, project manager for capital improvements at the Capital City Development Corp.
North-south pedestrian access across the plaza will remain through a 10-foot corridor between the fences; plaza business will remain open; and about 20 feet of plaza will remain available in front of Boise Centre. However, the plaza’s east spoke toward Ninth Street will be closed to the public, Woodruff said.
CCDC’s Doug Woodruff on Grove Plaza on one of the last days before removal of the bricks and trees from 1986. Photo by Teya Vitu.
The $4.85 million Grove Plaza renovation will offer some things that are new and some that are familiar. The new fountain will remain flush to the ground and the plaza will still be brick and largely open.
New will be a pair of family-style restrooms with changing tables that back onto the Boise Centre’s Perch Room, where the three windows will be filled in. The restrooms were a recent addition after a public surveying process, Woodruff said.
“One of the biggest needs for the restrooms is for people using the fountain to change,” Woodruff said.
Plaza construction had been planned for January but was delayed because of construction on the City Center Plaza, which occupies a portion of the plaza. City Center construction continues, but CCDC reached agreements with developer,Gardner Co., and with the Boise Centre to allow plaza work to start now.
Gardner agreed to turn the north spoke of the plaza toward Main Street over to plaza construction manager/general contractor McAlvain Construction on July 1 and the area above the underground Valley Regional Transit Center on Aug. 1, Woodruff said.
