U.S. Attorney’s office will move to Pioneer Crossing

The U.S. Attorney’s Office will relocate to the new Pioneer Crossing office building at Myrtle and 13^th streets, becoming the second announced tenant for the five-story, 127,000-square-foot structure expected to open in May.

First Interstate Bank in June announced it would move its Idaho regional headquarters into Pioneer Crossing from the Plaza 121 tower at Ninth and Idaho streets.

Developer Ball Ventures Ahlquist has been in discussions with the federal legal agency since before the June groundbreaking of the structure, said Tommy Ahlquist, BVA’s CEO.

Ahlquist responded to a pre-solicitation advertisement in November 2017 from the federal General Services Administration for new space to house a new Boise office for the U.S. Attorney’s District of Idaho. GSA, which handles federal real estate matters, issued a request for proposals Jan. 31.

“It was quite the process to get the lease signed,” Ahlquist said. “This is a big deal for us. It’s the mark of professionalism. It says a lot about the quality of our development.”

The 20-year, $13.6 million lease with an opt-out clause at 10 years was awarded Oct. 10 to BVA, said Chad Hutson, a GSA spokesman.

Ahlquist believes the building will be fully leased by the time it opens.

The U.S. Attorney is leaving the Washington Group Plaza complex, where its lease expires in May. St. Luke’s Health System acquired Washington Group Plaza in March and is not renewing leases as they expire.

The U.S. Attorney is part of the same exodus that led the state of Idaho to buy the Hewlett-Packard facility to relocate the Idaho State Tax Commission and other state offices from Washington Group to the HP compound.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho has about 56 employees, including 25 assistant U.S. attorneys. Along with the main office in Boise, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has branch offices in Pocatello, which opened in 1999 and Coeur d’Alene, which opened in 1996.

The U.S. Attorney will occupy 27,500 square feet, including the entire fifth floor and 2,500 square feet on the fourth floor of the Pioneer Crossing office. The new space will be smaller than the 35,865-square-foot space the federal legal office has occupied at Washington Group Plaza IV for about 10 years, Hutson said.

First Interstate will occupy about 15,000 square feet on the second floor along with a ground floor bank branch. More tenant announcements are expected in the coming weeks, Ahlquist said.

The Pioneer Crossing Office will be neighbors with the 132-room Hilton Garden Inn and Panera Bread, two other Pioneer Crossing tenants that opened in July. A 629-space, five-level garage opened on the property earlier in the year.