Black Bear Diner builds second Boise store at North Pointe

Boise’s second Black Bear Diner will go into the North Pointe commercial and residential development that has been taking shape since June 2015 at State Street and Gary Lane.

Construction of the 5,678-square-foot Black Bear structure launches the second set of commercial buildings for North Point developer and owner Hawkins Companies. Hawkins earlier this year finished the first set of four multi-tenant commercial buildings that include tenants Smashburger, Jersey Mike’s Subs and Chipotle and the recently announced Native Grill & Wings.

The Black Bear building will be the fifth of eight planned commercial buildings for the 23.1-acre North Pointe that also includes the 29-building, 323-unit Kensington at North Pointe Apartments. The first two Kensington structures with 32 apartments are complete, as is the clubhouse, said Brandon Whallon, pre-development project manager at Hawkins.

Hawkins is in negotiations with tenants for the other three commercial buildings, said Shaun Greear, leasing director at Hawkins.

Redding, Calif.-based Black Bear Diner opened its first eatery in Mount Shasta, Calif., in 1995 and since has expanded to eight western states with 85 restaurants. It has another 16 to 20 stores planned for the next year. The first Black Bear opened in Boise in July 2012 after Black Bear first appeared outside California in Madras, Ore., in 2000, said Jairo Moncado, a Black Bear spokesman.

Black Bear opened in Chubbuck in March and expects to open in Idaho Falls in February and is in early negotiations in Twin Falls for a projected early 2018 opening, said Doug Branigan, Black Bear’s chief development officer.

Most Black Bears are franchise stores but 26 are corporate-owned, including the North Pointe and Idaho Falls locations. The Boise franchise holder at Boise Spectrum also has two Black Bears in Utah but is not looking to grow, so Black Bear decided to build its own store at North Pointe, Branigan said.

“I like North Pointe,” Branigan said. “That’s a great trade area attracting people from Meridian and north Boise. It’s getting me out of the cluster out there (in the Milwaukee Street and Fairview Road and Overland Road corridors).”

The North Point is expected to open in the third quarter of 2017, he said.