Awkward stretch of Fairview draws two projects

The 1950s diner sign still stands as the new Skyvue Business Park is constructed on the former diner property. Photo by Teya Vitu.

What looks like the most awkward address in Boise has attracted two development projects.

Dentist Carrick Brewster in April opened his newly built dental office on Fairview Avenue, west of Orchard Street. Across the street in May, developer Jim Conger demolished the landmark 1950s drive-in diner and started construction on a 5,576-square-foot Skyvue Business Park.

Both businesses are on a two-block stretch of Fairview that is wedged awkwardly between I-184 and Chinden Boulevard. Westbound Fairview dead-ends at the freeway and a center barrier prevents left turns, making for tricky access.

Conger said the access and awkwardness weren’t a problem for him. He was more concerned with what would happen to the vacated diner lot in front of the building he acquired in 2015 for his Conger Management Group office.

“We own the adjacent commercial property to the north and are moving forward with this project to protect our existing investment and to continue the enhancement of this older established section of Boise,” Conger wrote in his application for a city conditional use permit. ”I was forced to proceed with this project or face the consequences of another paved parking lot turning into a used car sales business.”

The Skyvue Business Park name perpetuates the name from the last tenant of the diner, Skyvue Grill, which operated just 13 months until closing in October 2015. The Skyvue Grill sign still stands. The fate of the sign is unknown as Conger has not responded to calls from the Idaho Business Review.

Dr. Carrick Brewster built a dental office with the roof angled in several directions. Photo by Anne Wallace Allen.

Skyvue was a diner in its previous incarnations, and was variously known as Rockies Drive-In, Rockies Car Hop and Rockies Famous Burgers, businesses that operated on that property from 1994 to 2006. Cruz In Drive briefly occupied the building from about 1990 to 1993.

The 952-square-foot diner building started as an Arctic Circle in 1956 back when the address was not in the city limits and housing development west of Curtis was limited and essentially ended at Cole Road. Arctic Circle remained until 1989 through the era where I-84 partially truncated Fairview.

Skyview Business Park started construction on the same site in June and will be divided into four spaces.

Carroll Construction of Boise is the general contractor. The architect is Ward Schwider of Boise.

Across the street, Brewster, the dentist, veered sharply away from generic architecture for his two-story, 3,875-square-foot dental office. It has low pitched angular roof planes that veer off in different directions and an external mix of metal siding, cedar and rock walls with downtown views in all treatment rooms and the upstairs employee lounge.

“They had a vision of what they wanted,” said architect Robin Gates, of Studio L  Architecture, who collaborated with Michael Kingsley of CDS Inc. and Crystal Arreola at Studio Interiors. “The client was very clear.”

Brewster has not responded to calls from the Idaho Business Review.

Editor’s note: A correction in the name Carrick Brewster was made at 3:15 p.m. on July 20.