Biz ‘Bites:’ More at Ten Mile Crossing, First Cobalt exploring Salmon area

Another groundbreaking at Ten Mile Crossing

Ball Ventures Ahlquist (BVA), Brighton Corporation and SCS Development held a groundbreaking on Oct. 7 for a new 75,000-square-foot office building at Ten Mile Crossing, the commercial and office development in Meridian just north of the Ten Mile Road interchange on I-84.

The new office building will be three stories. The general contractor is Engineered Structures Inc. (ESI) of Meridian. The building’s anchor tenant will be Capital Eleven, an Idaho investment firm specializing in private equity, early-stage venture capital and real estate development. The firm to date has funded and founded over 16 successful projects, including Capital Auto Loan in 2014, which has quickly become one of the largest auto lenders in Idaho, Utah and Montana.

Capital Eleven also invested in the local Meridian startup, Crave Delivery, in 2019. Crave Delivery, whose headquarters is also located at the Ten Mile Crossing development, offers a variety of cuisines from award-winning chefs, exclusively available through their employee mobile servers right to the customer’s door.

“We are thrilled to have Capital Eleven’s headquarters located in the Ten Mile Crossing development,” Tommy Ahlquist, CEO of BVA, said. “Capital Eleven as an anchor tenant in the new 75,000-square-foot office building will bring even more success to the already booming office park.”

“We’re excited for and congratulate Travis Hawkes, David Gardner and Capital Eleven for expanding its business into this new building at Ten Mile Crossing. We appreciate the City of Meridian and all the work done with Brighton, Ball Ventures and BVA in developing this site,” said Steve Smith, founder of SCS Development.

First Cobalt resumes exploration near Salmon

First Cobalt Corp. (FCC) announced on Sept. 23 that it has resumed its exploration campaign of its Iron Creek project. The firm’s ongoing exploration activities are focused on its Iron Creek property and two adjacent properties to the east. All three properties in the Iron Creek Project are in the Idaho Cobalt Belt southwest of Salmon, which is the largest unmined cobalt resource in the United States. FCC is currently working on restarting its cobalt processing facility in Canada to handle its anticipated future production in both the United States and Canada, where it also owns cobalt mining rights.

FCC’s activities in Idaho have included the doubling of its land position in early 2021 at the Iron Creek Project, expanding it to almost 4,000 acres on the southern end of the cobalt belt, near the community of Elk Bend. Besides cobalt, the Iron Creek Project also includes projected economic copper resources. The company expects to expand exploration activities in 2022. FCC is headquartered in Toronto.

Hayden Homes acquires RYN single-family lots in Spokane market

RYN Built Homes of Spokane Valley, Wash., formerly Viking Builders, announced on Oct. 13 an agreement with Hayden Homes to provide single-family lots in multiple projects throughout the Tri-Cities and Spokane markets in Washington.

“We will continue building apartments, some smaller single-family home projects, as well as continue with land development,” said Ryan Olson, CEO of RYN Built Homes. “We are excited about this relationship between two well-respected residential building companies.”

Hayden Homes, headquartered in Redmond, Oregon builds homes in underserved, secondary markets throughout Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Hayden has built in the Spokane area since 1994, since expanding into northern Idaho in the Coeur d’Alene, Hayden, Post Falls and Rathdrum communities. RYN Built Homes of Spokane is also active in the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene metro-area housing market.