New Market Tax Credits for old Boise building

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If she were alive today, Mrs. A. S. Tiner would be happy to see the plans to restore and remodel the building that Wayland & Fennell designed and she built in 1910 at 1010 W. Main in Boise.

Recreating an historic Boise building

The building was once the home of the early-to-mid 20th century Hotel Manitou and a variety of theaters and live venue entertainment over the years. The hotel business closed in the ’60s, but the Bouquet live-music venue and bar operated on the ground floor from 1975 until 2010. Cal Elliott, a Boise-raised New York City Michelin-starred chef, bought 1010 W. Main St. in 2015. He and co-developer Michael Hormaechea intend to create a boutique hotel, restaurant, gastropub and bar at the property, according to a Feb. 3 news release. Hormaechea is a well-known Boise developer, whose projects include the Afton downtown.

They will rename the building the Avery Hotel and Restaurant. According to plans presented in July 2021 to the Capital City Development Corporation (CCDC), Boise’s urban renewal agency, the developers intend to restore the vintage feel and much of the vintage appointments to the inside and façade of the building. Another sign of the developers’ dedication to the restoration of this historic property is their easement donation to the City of Boise, which was approved at the July 26, 2021 meeting of the Boise Historic Preservation Commission.

Avery Hotel financing

The financing for the $14 million project is the collaboration of the Mountain West Bank and federal New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) arranged through inland northwest community development lender MoFi. MoFi arranges NMTC financing for qualified projects in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon. The organization has offices in Missoula, Bozeman, Salt Lake City and Boise. The NMTC financing is designed to close financing gaps for development projects the emphasize job creation, job quality, the provision of services in low-income communities and alignment with local development priorities.

Elliott and Hormaechea said the NMTC program played a crucial role in moving the project forward.

“I can say without question The Avery Hotel & Restaurant would not be underway without the investment from the NMTC program,” said Hormaechea in a statement. “More so now than ever, escalating construction costs for both labor and materials are putting significant pressure on project feasibility. The rehabilitation of our historic building in downtown Boise is one of the last opportunities of its kind. Unique community assets like this need to be preserved so their story can be told to the next generation. NMTCs are instrumental to meaningful projects that need alternative financing, and we are very thankful they were available for The Avery.”

To overcome the current service sector labor shortage, Hormaechea said his team is taking measures to ensure they will be fully staffed when they open. They plan to partner with Life’s Kitchen, a nonprofit social enterprise providing at-risk youth ages 16-24 with wraparound work and life skills. Youth in the Life’s Kitchen program receive a variety of on-the-job skills through local restaurant partners that provide mentoring and job opportunities to students and graduates.

First MoFi NMTC project in Boise

MoFi President Dave Glaser said this is an example of the NMTC program “doing exactly what it’s designed to do.” Glaser told the Idaho Business Review: “For years, we’ve been meeting with potential projects in downtown Boise to have this come to fruition. It means a whole lot to us as an organization and to have it be such an iconic project. It just makes it all the better.”

Although The Avery is MoFi’s first NMTC project in Boise’s city limits, the lender has supported 13 projects across Idaho in the last decade, including a new mixed-use development in downtown Twin Falls, a new youth center for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe in Worley and new headquarters for Fresca Mexican Foods and Capitol Distributing Inc., both in Caldwell.

The New Markets Tax Credit program was enacted in 2000 as part of a bipartisan effort to spur private investment and economic growth in low-income and rural communities that lack access to the capital needed to support businesses, create jobs and sustain healthy economies. The credits are awarded annually through a competitive process. The program is currently set to expire in 2025, however, bipartisan legislation is currently under review that would make the program a permanent part of the tax code.

U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, one of the most vocal and longtime supporters of the NMTC program, said, “This forward-looking project to revitalize the A.S. Tiner Building in the heart of downtown Boise is a milestone worth celebrating. I supported the December 2020 five-year extension of the New Markets Tax Credit, which will continue to enable successful investments like this one to take place in Idaho. I wish all of the project partners the best on the ongoing completion of this innovative rehabilitation and redevelopment.”

U.S. Congressman Mike Simpson (District 2) added, “I’m pleased to see the New Markets Tax Credit operating as it was designed to do. The revitalization of the A.S. Tiner Building is a welcome addition to the downtown Boise community, and as a longtime supporter of the New Markets Tax Credit and co-sponsor of legislation to make the credit permanent, I look forward to following along as capital is invested in communities across Idaho.”

The history of the A.S. Tiner Building

It is always a win when an old and venerable building is preserved and remodeled rather than falling victim to a wrecker ball. That is the fate of the A. S. Tiner Building, also known as the Averyl Building, which is part of the Lower Main Street Commercial Historic District at 1010 W. Main St. Most recently, the building was the home of the Blues Bouquet, which was a live music venue. It’s also been home to a hotel and movie theaters, dating back to its construction in 1910. It will now become the home of a new development project called the Avery Hotel and Restaurant.

Who was A. S. Tiner?

The current building is not the original structure on this site. The original was built by Alice S. Tiner in 1902 on property she owned. She was born in Marion, Ohio as Alice Sarah Ultz in 1846. She was an Idaho pioneer married to first to William Angell and had three children with him. They lived in Shasta, California before moving to Silver City, Idaho. They were married 18 years when he died in 1879 in Silver City. He is buried in Boise’s Pioneer Cemetery.

Alice went on to marry Isham L. Tiner in 1884 in Boise. He was two decades her senior. It was a second marriage for both of them. He was a Placerville, Idaho, miner and business man before moving to Boise to pursue both business and politics. According to her obituary in the Idaho Statesman, before she married him, Alice invested and owned property on Main Street, including what would be known as the Tiner Block between 10th and 11th streets.

Tiner was an aggressive businesswoman and had property holdings in the Treasure Valley and Payette River Valley, buying and selling land and also buying businesses in the area and hiring managers to run them. A  May 1910 article in the Idaho Daily Statesman indicates she was the owner and builder of the second Tiner building, which was on the Tiner Block. She died in 1912 at the Fort Street home of her daughter, Alice Dickinson, and was buried with her first husband in Pioneer Cemetery.

The first A. S. Tiner Building

The first A. S. Tiner Building was a two-story structure built in a row including the Alaska, Larsen, Gem, Gibbons and Knight buildings. The Tiner became the home of the Boise branch of the Tootle, Wheeler & Motter Mercantile Co., a dry goods and department store chain based in St. Joseph, Missouri. It was renamed the Wheeler & Motter Mercantile Co. in 1909, but burned down in 1910.

The second A. S. Tiner Building

According to the National Register of Historical Places application of 1980 for the Lower Main Street Commercial District, the second four-story building was: “built as a replacement for the original two-story Tiner building of 1902, which was totally destroyed by fire. In order to support the additional stories, new piers were sunk 15 feet below the basement to strengthen the walls and foundation. The new building was built in the Renaissance style from a design by the firm of Wayland and Fennell in 1910. The new tenants included the New Boz theatre and the Manitou Hotel…The Manitou Hotel occupied the upper three floors and was supplied with a marble staircase, an Otis electric elevator, maple hardwood floors, hot water heating, running hot and cold water in each room and private baths; all of this was very modern. This building was operated as a theater until about 1950 and a hotel into the 1960’s. The space has since been used by the Bazaar department store. The ground floor has been recently remodeled into a bar, the Bouquet, retaining the materials and feeling of the original period.”

The New Box Theatre was renamed the Strand at some point. Then in 1937, the New Boz Theatre became the Granada Theatre. In 1975, the live music venue of the Bouquet opened up.

In the description of the Tiner Building, the application notes: “A tablet bearing the name ‘AVERYL’ is located between the third and fourth floors in the center of the building.” It is likely that Tiner decided to name the building for her granddaughter, Averyl Dickinson Means, who is also buried in the Angell family plot at Pioneer Cemetery.