Construction could soon hit all four corners at Pioneer Crossing

In the coming months, all four corners at Pioneer Crossing in downtown Boise could have construction underway.

For now, concrete work has reached the fourth of five levels at the 829-space garage at Front and 11^th streets, and wood framing is at the fifth and highest level for the 150-room Hilton Garden Inn at Front and 13^th streets. The hotel could open in late spring or early summer 2018, said Tommy Ahlquist, chief operating officer at the Gardner Company, the developer of Pioneer Crossing.

Panera Bread could start foundation work in fall on its 5,000-square-foot free-standing restaurant building at 11^th and Myrtle streets, Ahlquist said.

“It depends on what they want as an opening date,” he said.

Pioneer Crossing is another downtown project for the Gardner Company, the Salt Lake City developer that has put a stamp on downtown Boise with the Eighth and Main tower. That 18-story, 390,000-square-foot building, completed in 2014, filled a vacant lot known as the Boise Hole that gaped in a key downtown location for 25 years. Gardner also built the 383,000-square-foot Clearwater Building, which claimed a small surface parking lot wrapping around two sides of the U.S. Bank Tower nearly across the street from Eighth and Main.

Pioneer Crossing similarly develops former Union Pacific Railroad property that garnered no development in the 16 years that the Greater Boise Auditorium District owned it before selling to Gardner.

A five-story, 120,000-square-foot office building is slated for Myrtle and 13^th streets.

“We just need a few more details to get that started in spring,” Ahlquist said.

Gardner Executive Vice President David Wali said most the floors are full or half-full with initial tenant commitments. Signatures on formal documents will determine when office building construction starts, Wali said.