Capital City Development Corp. | Idaho Business Review

CCDC looks to add another urban renewal district

Lusk Street, with buildings built in 1948, could become part of a new CCDC urban renewal district. Photo by Teya Vitu.

Boise’s next urban renewal district could include the proposed downtown baseball/soccer stadium; the ramshackle Lusk Street area sandwiched between Capitol Boulevard and Ann Morrison Park; the corridor between River Road and the Boise River; and the area between Americana Boulevard and The Connector.

The Capital City Development Corp. is vetting a roughly 120-acre Shoreline District that would slice off sections of the existing River Myrtle-Old Boise and 30^th Street (West End) urban renewal district and add roughly equal portions of downtown that have never been in an urban renewal district.

The proposed Shoreline District is roughly Italy-shaped, with the Americana area in northern Italy and the Lusk Street area in the foot of the boot.

CCDC has four urban renewal districts, with the most recent established on the West End in 2012 and the oldest, the Central District, expiring in 2018.

“We saw two catalyst projects along the river,” CCDC Executive Director John Brunelle said. “We then explored other parcels along the river with opportunities for development that were not in an (urban renewal) district.”

The Shoreline urban renewal district would largely be the area bounded by River Street, The Connector and including the Lusk Street area. Image courtesy of Capital City Development Corp.

Brunelle is especially intrigued by the development potential of the Forest River Office Park surface parking lots that front River Street.

He also has an eye on the Lusk Street area, which still bears the ambience of its industrial past. Lusk Street buildings were mostly built in 1948, and the La Pointe Street buildings across from the two-year-old student housing date mostly from 1949 to 1954. The student housing would not be in the new district.

An urban renewal district could provide a funding mechanism to carry out elements of the city of Boise’s 2013 Lusk Street Master Plan, said Jimmy Hallyburton, executive director of the Boise Bicycle Project, which has been located on Lusk Street for seven years.

Boise Bicycle Project executive director Jimmy Hallyburton. Photo courtesy of BBP.

“It seems for the most part the neighborhood is excited about being part of an urban renewal district,” Hallyburton said. “They see it as something to be very helpful for the neighborhood.”

Hallyburton said an urban renewal district could be the ticket for outfitting the neighborhood with sidewalks, better promoting the access to Ann Morrison Park and possibly burying overhead power lines. These elements are also spelled out in the city’s master plan.

“There are long stretches without sidewalks,” said Hallyburton, adding that the Royal Boulevard and Ann Morrison Drive/University Boulevard crosswalks are among the busiest in Boise. “There are all these gaps on Lusk without sidewalks, and the same on Royal.”

Neither Lusk nor Forest River is in an urban renewal district. The main post office and several 13^th Street and Shoreline Drive properties also fall just outside the existing urban renewal districts.

CCDC brought in SB Friedman Development Advisors of Chicago in June to write an eligibility report to determine if all the properties cumulatively meet the standards for urban renewal. These standards include eliminating or preventing blight and revitalizing underused areas.

The report is scheduled to be submitted to the CCDC Commission and Boise City Council in fall. If eligibility is confirmed, CCDC will determine what sort of development projects and infrastructure projects would be included in the 20-year maximum lifespan of the Shoreline District, said Shellan Rodriguez, CCDC’s project manager for property development.

“A district could be in place as early as 2019,” Rodriguez said.

Forest River parking lots are attractive for redevelopment. Photo by Teya Vitu.

Urban renewal districts establish a base value of all the property in the district. The district is funded by increased taxes generated above the base value, known as a tax increment.

Urban renewal districts rely on public-private partnerships. CCDC, for instance, can build infrastructure for private projects that would be funded from the new taxes generated from private projects.

“This Shoreline District could really produce a series of public improvements from The Connector to the Bench and Lusk district,” Rodriguez said.

Broad Street has a new face

Broad Street now has a festival block between Fifth and Sixth streets. Photo by Teya Vitu. — Broad Street now has a “festival” block between Fifth and Sixth streets, so called because of its wide sidewalks sloping down to the concrete street. Photo by Teya Vitu.

As big buildings have arisen on Broad Street this past year, the street itself has undergone a down-to-the-dirt overhaul.

Five blocks of Broad between Capitol Boulevard and Second Street now offer pedestrian-friendly, event-friendly and environmentally-friendly features. Broad is the main street through what the city of Boise calls its LIV District, where the city seeks to exemplify “lasting environments, innovative enterprises and vibrant communities.”

The street now has wider sidewalks, two rows of trees, and brick pavers that drain storm water into the ground. Out of sight, the city’s geothermal system was extended down Broad Street and additional fiber optic lines were installed, said Karl Woods, the Broad Street project manager at the Capital City Development Corp., which undertook the Broad Street improvements.

A “festival” block akin to the Basque Block, which is closed to traffic for public events, graces Broad between Fifth and Sixth streets. On that block, the street surface is concrete, the rolled curbs slope up to the sidewalk, the sidewalks are 26 feet, 7 inches wide and there is no parking allowed.

The festival block presents an outdoor extension for Boise Brewing, the Boise, and, opening later this year, The Fowler Apartments. The apartment building will include a street level The Wylder pizza shop and Form & Function coffee shop.

“We’ve been doing Hoptober Freshtival every years since we opened (in 2014),” Boise Brewing founder Collin Rudeen said. “It was an old street and beat-up sidewalks. Now it looks like the real deal. We’re looking to do more block parties during the year. That’s something we would not have done before.”

Only half the festival block is done – the other half will be finished in fall – but the first street event is slated for Aug. 26 with the Boise Weekly’s Big LeBoise event.

The reconstructed Broad Street comes with two rows of trees and parking space pavers designed to drain storm water into the ground. Photo by Teya Vitu.

The $6.5 million Broad Street improvement is a CCDC project in collaboration with the Ada County Highway District, which owns the street, the city of Boise and private property owners. Work started in September and won’t be done until the end of October, but much of the five-block stretch is completed.

The street work ran concurrent with construction of the 185-room Residence Inn by Marriott and the 159-unit The Fowler Apartments, both with a Broad Street frontage.

“It’s been coined the ‘coolest’ street in Boise,” Woods said. “It’s a big placemaking improvement. Now it’s a place, a destination.”

The ‘coolest’ refers to the trees that eventually will fully shade the street. Trees are on the sidewalk and a second row of trees are installed in sidewalk extensions between parking spaces. Artistic bike racks, light fixtures, manhole covers and benches set the new Broad Street apart from all other Boise streets, Woods said.

“It will be a big urban park,” Woods said.

The city is seeking to replicate the idea elsewhere of mixing Broad Street’s mix of commercial, residential and entertainment within an eco-friendly setting, said Haley Falconer, the city’s environmental division manager and former project manager for the LIV District.

“It is the first true, vibrant, urban neighborhood we have,” Falconer said. “The space is a public space now. Broad Street gives the space back to the public by instilling it with all of the unique features of the district.”

The key was bringing together multiple projects at the same time, she said.

“This makes a transformational change that is better than with one-off projects,” Falconer said. “It is a very visible representation of what can happen when more than one of us come together.

Group questions impact of proposed downtown Boise stadium

Before any formal submittals have been made regarding a potential downtown Boise baseball and soccer stadium, a local group has raised questions about a stadium’s impact on the Americana Boulevard/Shoreline Drive area.

Concerned Boise Taxpayers on July 16 submitted a letter to the Greater Boise Auditorium District asking the district to require an in-depth analysis of a stadium’s traffic, noise, lighting, environmental and true economic impact on property value. The letter was signed by former Albertsons Chairman and CEO Gary G. Michael.

“Concerned Boise Taxpayers… respectfully request that more solid information be provided to the taxpaying citizens of Boise before any money is paid for the acquisition of any land in a public/private partnership for a baseball multi-use field,” Michael wrote.

GBAD officials said it was premature to address the matter as Greenstone Properties, which is proposing the stadium, has not made a formal presentation to GBAD.

“We have not been asked to consider a project yet,” GBAD Board Chairman Jim Walker said. “There’s nothing on the table for us to discuss.”

A downtown stadium will involve approvals from the city of Boise, the Capital City Development Corp., and likely GBAD.

GBAD Executive Director Pat Rice said Concerned Boise Taxpayers had asked GBAD to help pay for the study.

“I’m not sure that’s our role in this,” he said.

GBAD owns and operates the Boise Centre. The district, which can incur debt, is authorized to build, operate, maintain, market, and manage public auditoriums, exhibit halls, convention centers, sports arenas and similar facilities.

Greenstone is still negotiating with St. Luke’s Health System to acquire 11 acres at American and Shoreline. The property includes St. Luke’s Business Center, which is located in a former Kmart, the Shoreline Center property across Shoreline Drive and the former Beehive Salon and Total Woman Fitness properties across Spa Street. Chris Schoen, managing principal of Greenstone, has said he wants to start construction in late spring 2018 on a 5,000-fixed-seat stadium expandable to 7,000 seats for soccer. Games would start in 2020.

Schoen is also co-owner of the Boise Hawks minor league baseball team, which would be a tenant of the new stadium.

Concerned Boise Taxpayers has not sent similar letters to the city or CCDC. City and CCDC officials said the groups’ concerns are within the entitlement process to allow the stadium project to proceed.

“All those things that they are concerned about are things that are going to be part of this process,” said Mike Journee, spokesman for Mayor David Bieter. “As part of the due diligence by the development partners, all those questions are going to be answered for people.”

CCDC is in the early stages of creating a new urban renewal district – the Shoreline District – that would include the stadium and surrounding commercial, office and residential development that Greenstone proposes.

“We have not begun the master plan for the new urban renewal district,” CCDC Executive Director John Brunelle said. “That’s when all of those things will be addressed. Those are all great questions. Those are questions that need to be answered in the master planning process for the new district.”

A second Afton condo building could come soon

A second The Afton condo tower is planned next to the recently completed The Afton in downtown Boise. Photo by Teya Vitu.

The first phase of The Afton condo project at Eighth and River streets in downtown Boise sold out before the first tenants drove up with moving trucks in late June.

Now a five-story second phase with 35 additional condos is being designed. No construction start date has been set, developer Michael Hormaechea said.

Two years ago, Hormaechea didn’t think the second phase would follow on the heels of the 28-unit, six-story first phase that started construction in October 2015.

“We sold phase one faster than projected,”

Hormaechea said. “Because of that, we’re moving into final design for phase two quicker as well.”

CTA Group of Boise is the architect of both phases, working from a conceptual design from GGLO Design in Seattle. Construction is expected to take 20 to 24 months, he said.

The Afton is a signature redevelopment collaboration with the Capital City Development Corp. to revitalize a former warehouse property and surrounding area with a compact urban neighborhood that includes mixed-use projects. Hormaechea “bought” the CCDC-owned property for $1.7 million with the provision that he will be repaid $850,000 soon for completing the first phase. Another $850,000 will be returned to him upon completion of the second phase.

While downtown living has been popular in downtown Boise, retail has balked at The Afton, Hormaechea said.

Talks in 2014 with CCDC, which owned the property, indicated The Afton would have up to 8,000 square feet of retail in both buildings. The first building, completed in June, now has 2,000 square feet of commercial retail space and no tenants.

Hormaechea sought to scratch all retail space requirement from the second building at Ninth and River streets at the July 12 city Design Review Committee. He said consulting with commercial real estate brokers determined that Eighth and River would be a stronger retail corner than Ninth and River – and Hormaechea has landed no tenants for Eighth and River.

But the committee, an entity of Boise Planning and Development Services, was not eager to loosen the retail requirement. The city had previously approved plans for 2,000 commercial square feet for phase two, consistent with city and CCDC master plans for River Street.

“Numerous times we approve something and it comes back in a diminished form,” committee co-chair David Rudeen said.

From the mayor and City Council down through Planning and Development Services, the Boise Planning Commission and the Design Review Committee, the appetite remains fervent for mixed-use development: commercial on street level and office/residential above. Backing away from the street level retail diminishes the project.

“They may remain a good project but not a great project,” committee member Thomas Zabala said. “I’m not in favor of backing out of the requirement to provide 2,000 square feet of retail.”

Hormaechea, however, won a compromise from the committee, which agreed to replace the word “retail” with “mixed-use” and to lower the square footage requirement to a range from 1,400 to 2,000 square feet.

Long-awaited 5th and Idaho Apartments start construction

5th and Idaho Apartments will start construction two years after the project was announced. Image courtesy of Hummel Architects.

Construction will start June 26 on the long anticipated 81-unit Fifth and Idaho Apartments in Old Boise.

The project has secured a $14 million construction loan from CBRE Capital Markets, the Seattle office of the real estate finance firm announced.

Project developers Dean Papé and Peter Oliver and majority owners Clay Carley and Tim Gibson walked the project through the city resign review process in 2015 intending to complete the five-story building by the end of 2016. Papé said working through the financing and agreements with the Capital City Development Corp. and city of Boise took longer than expected.

CCDC in June 2015 agreed to reimburse up to $1.24 million to build a pocket park and do streetscape and alley improvements. The developers granted an easement to the city to allow for the public pocket park.

ESI Construction of Meridian is the general contractor and Hummel Architects of Boise partnered with GGLO of Seattle as the architects.

“We appreciate CBRE’s efforts to secure financing for this exciting new development,” Papé said in a news release. “The financing package was well suited to meet the goals of the project.”

Papé and Oliver are partners in Fifth and Idaho Investment LLC, which will manage the loan. Papé is also a partner at deChase Miksis, a Boise and Eugene, Ore., development firm.

The loan was funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 221(d)(4) new construction mortgage insurance program.

HUD stipulates that all families are eligible to occupy 221(d)(4) homes and there are no income limits. 5^th and Idaho will offer market-rate apartments, according to the CBRE release.

Fifth and Idaho will have studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and loft units, 66 underground parking spaces and 11 surface parking spaces. The ground floor will have retail space, according to the release.

Editor’s note: This article was updated at 10:10 a.m. June 23 with additional information about the Capital City Development Corp. involvement in the project.

A visitor center returns to Grove Plaza

A visitor center was incorporated into the restroom structure added to the renovated Grove Plaza in downtown Boise. Photo by Teya Vitu.

Boise’s visitor center has headed back to center stage.

After seven years tucked under a garage at Front and Ninth streets, the visitors center opened June 5 to the right of the main Boise Centre entrance on the Grove Plaza.

The visitor center is attached to a two-stall restroom attached to the convention center.

The visitor center was once at the Boise Centre. It was moved in 1990 to the convention center’s marketing office across Front Street and relabeled Concierge Corner and Visitor Services. It was staffed part-time by volunteers.

Boise Centre sales manager Kay Dillon assists a visitor at the new visitor center on Grove Plaza. Photo by Teya Vitu.

The new visitor center is staffed full-time by Boise Centre’s visitor services and sales staff and other part-time paid and volunteer Boise Centre staff, said Pat Rice, executive director of the Boise Centre.

Visitor center hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday with extended hours for Alive After Five and other special events.

The center returned to Grove Plaza as a collaboration between Boise Centre and the Capital City Development Corp. CCDC owns Grove Plaza and built the new restroom and additional windowed space that holds the visitor center. Boise Centre manages the plaza.

Public restrooms were a high priority in public polls for the new plaza. CCDC consulted with Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland on plaza restrooms and was advised to have a “human interface” to reduce unwanted behavior, said Doug Woodruff, CCDC’s project manager for capital improvements.

“From the get-go, we needed attended restrooms,” said Woodruff said.

People get the key for the new Grove Plaza restrooms in the adjoining visitor center. Photo by Teya Vitu.

Woodruff and Rice got to talking early in the process.

“Suddenly, we had a good opportunity to have a visitors center with a full-time attendant,” Rice said. “I asked our visitors center staff and they were excited. They never felt it was as convenient (at Front and Ninth) as it was when we had it on Grove Plaza.”

Restroom users ask for a key in the visitor center.

CCDC and Boise Centre have a maintenance agreement for Grove Plaza, where Boise Centre paid CCDC $750,000 toward the reconstruction of Grove Plaza, including air rights for the elevated Boise Centre concourse and the visitor center space and restrooms.

Operating the visitor center is expected to cost $56,000 for the first 18 months with Boise Centre and CCDC splitting the cost, Rice said.

The new visitor center will have more materials on tours, restaurants, hiking, walking and biking trails as well as wineries, McCall and Sun Valley and Boise area events.

Before the redesign, Boise Centre had exterior restrooms next to the former location of Taters shop on the Grove Plaza’s south spoke. But they were open only during public events on the plaza. They were closed when Grove Plaza reconstruction started in spring 2016 and demolished when Boise Centre renovations started.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 8:25 a.m. June 9 to clarify the Boise Centre’s $750,000 payment to CCDC.

The Afton condos should have residents in June

The finishing touches are going onto The Afton, a 28-unit downtown Boise condo development. Photo by Teya Vitu.

The 28-unit first phase of The Afton condominium project is nearly complete, with tenants expected to move in starting in June, developer Michael Hormaechea said.

He said 27 of the condos have sold at the redevelopment project at Eighth and River streets in downtown Boise.

“We are certainly thrilled at the response,” said Hormaechea, managing partner of RMH Company.

Hormaechea is in the final design stage for a second building at The Afton at Ninth and River streets. He would not say how many units that building will have, but in earlier interviews he estimated 30 to 35 units.

“Give me another month and we’ll be able to give you more information on phase two,” he said.

The Afton is a redevelopment project by the Capital City Development Corp., the city’s urban renewal agency, which owned the 1.2-acre property that once held an empty, former Associated Distributing & Leasing warehouse and a second empty warehouse.

Hormaechea bought the property for $1.7 million in a CCDC redevelopment agreement that will reimburse him $850,000 when construction of the first building is completed and reimburse him the other $850,000 when the second building is completed.

“It’s a thoughtfully designed project in the way it interacts with the Eighth Street corridor,” said Shellan Rodriguez, CCDC’s property development project manager. “CCDC sees it as an effective way to reach the city goal of 1,000 new homes in downtown by 2020.”

Construction started in October 2015. The architect was GGLO Architects of Seattle and the general contractor is Andersen Construction of Boise.

Parking changes are on the horizon for downtown garages

A downtown Boise parking garage. The Capital City Development Corp. is looking at steep price increases and adjustable pricing as a way to influence commuters who now drive to work alone. File photo.

Downtown Boise is in the early stages of “demand-based” parking, a practice used in other cities where steep rates and adjustable pricing is used to affect demand.

Capital City Development Corp. in January 2016 took a first step toward demand-based parking by increasing monthly parking rates in its six public garages by $20 to $35 a month.

CCDC is exploring monthly and daily parking rate increases as soon as August at the Ninth & Main, Capitol & Main, 10th & Front, Capitol & Front, Ninth & Front and Capitol & Myrtle garages, Clark said.

The development agency is considering these changes because CCDC has a waiting list of 750 for its 1,673 monthly parking spaces. These spaces are filled by commuters who are mostly people driving alone, and Clark said that needs to change.

“The only thing that’s going to change that behavior is rates,” Clark said. “It’s going to take a hammer, unfortunately.”

CCDC will conduct a survey in June to “assess the desirable services and acceptable rates to pay for them,” Clark said.

Hourly rates have been the same since 2004: free for the first hour, $2.50 for each subsequent hour and $12 for a day. CCDC is considering keeping or removing the free first hour, increasing rates 50 cents an hour, and/or increasing rates more after four or five hours. CCDC also is looking at increasing monthly rates $10 to $40, depending on the garage, Clark said.

CCDC wants to wean commuters off the practice of driving into town alone in a vehicle. In the next month, CCDC will offer parking preferences for carpool participants registered with Ada County Highway District’s My Commuter Crew program, and two vehicles will be available in a car share program. In the coming weeks, CCDC will start an Elder Street Park & Ride shuttle with free parking and shuttle ride .

Car sharing would be conducted through Enterprise Rent-A-Car. A similar program is in place at Boise State University.

Park and Ride shuttle should be ready soon for downtown commuters

The Boise State University shuttle buses will serve as park & ride shuttles for downtown commuters during summer. Photo by Teya Vitu. — A Boise State University shuttle bus. The buses will serve as park & ride shuttles for downtown commuters during the summer. Photo by Teya Vitu.

An alternative to downtown parking will debut in the coming weeks with a new, free park & ride shuttle system at the Elder Street parking lot near Vista Avenue, Interstate 84 and Boise Airport.

Commuters will be able to park at no cost and ride the shuttle for free to the Main Street Station bus terminal at Eighth and Main streets in downtown Boise, said Max Clark, parking and facilities director at Capital City Development Corp., which owns and operate six downtown garages.

The shuttle will operate from 6 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday. People will be able to call for an emergency pick up if they need to get back to their car during the day, Clark said.

CCDC is offering the Elder Street Park & Ride Shuttle in conjunction with Boise State University and the city of Boise. CCDC and the city will split the $72,000 initial cost for use of Boise State shuttles and 60 spaces in the Elder Street lot, which is owned by the university.

The park & ride will operate until the Boise State fall semester starts in August. At that time, shuttle use will be evaluated and other shuttle options explored as Boise State shuttles return to serving campus, Clark said.

“(People would want to use park & ride) because they aren’t able to get monthly parking downtown, or they don’t have to pay $12 a day (at CCDC garages),” Clark said.

Clark said there are 750 people on the waiting list for monthly parking permits in CCDC garages. CCDC has 1,673 monthly spaces in its arsenal of 2.567 parking spaces with 1,900 monthly pass holders.

There’s no website yet for the shuttle but information is available online through a search for Elder Street Park & Ride.

St. Luke’s, Boise Hawks announce deal for downtown Boise stadium

The Boise Hawks owners propose a stadium near downtown Boise at American Boulevard and Shoreline Drive. Image courtesy of Boise Hawks. — The Boise Hawks owners propose a stadium near downtown Boise at Americana Boulevard and Shoreline Drive. Image courtesy of Boise Hawks.

St. Luke’s Health System has agreed to sell 11 acres of land at Americana Boulevard and Shoreline Drive to the owners of the Boise Hawks minor league baseball to build a downtown stadium for the Hawks and a professional soccer team.

St. Luke’s, Agon Sports and Entertainment, Greenstone Properties and the city of Boise jointly announced the deal March 27.

The acreage includes the former Kmart property that now houses the St. Luke’s Business Center and includes all the land bounded by Americana, Shoreline, Spa Street and 14^th Street along with the Shoreline Center property across Shoreline Drive and the former Beehive Salon and Total Woman Fitness properties across Spa.

St. Luke’s is making an effort to move its employees closer to its main downtown hospital, and would move its business center workers to the Washington Group Plaza. St. Luke’s is in a sales and purchase agreement to acquire Washington Group Plaza, with the sale scheduled to close in April 2018, but the closing could be earlier, said Anita Kissée, a St. Luke’s spokeswoman.

The St. Luke's-Boise Hawks deal includes the former Kmart property (center), the Shoreline Center (left bottom) and the former Total Woman Fitness and Beehive Salon properties (top right). Image courtesy of St. Luke's Health System. — The St. Luke’s-Boise Hawks deal includes the former Kmart property (center), the Shoreline Center (left bottom) and the former Total Woman Fitness and Beehive Salon properties (top right). Image courtesy of St. Luke’s Health System.

A sales date for the Americana/Shoreline property is unknown. The assessed values of the combined 10.94 acres of St. Luke’s properties is $14.2 million, according to Ada County Assessor records.
“Next is negotiating the details of the agreement,” Kissée said.

Agon Sports, which owns the Boise Hawks, and Greenstone Properties, also owned by an Agon partner, wants to build a 5,000-fixed-seat stadium for the Hawks for $40 million to $45 million. With bleachers on the field, capacity could be expanded to 7,500 for soccer, said Jeff Eiseman, president of Agon Sports.

The United Soccer League has told the Idaho Business Review it has keen interest to have a team in Boise. The USL is a second level professional league directly below Major League Soccer.

“We would like to open a stadium in February 2019,” Eiseman said in an interview. “Working backwards, we would have to start construction in the next six to 10 months.”

The stadium would be part of a larger, $200-million mixed-use development proposed by Agon Sports and Greenstone with commercial, office and residential.

The Boise Hawks owners are not building a baseball stadium. They want a stadium that is optimal for baseball and soccer. They brought on Tad Shultz, president of Boston-based International Stadia Design, to design the Boise stadium. Shultz also designed the stadium now under construction for the other minor league baseball team that Agon Sports owns, the Augusta GreenJackets in Augusta, Ga.

“When the stadium is used for soccer, the left field wall pads are removed to expose an open-air Club Lounge at field elevation,” Shultz said in a news release. “It will be filled with passionate fans as players pass through on their exit from the locker room to the pitch.”

Along with finalizing the sale with St. Luke’s, Agon Sports still needs to work out agreements with the city of Boise, the Capital City Development Corp. and the Greater Boise Auditorium District before construction moves forward.

“There are still some milestones to achieve on the way,” Eiseman said. “The next milestones are with the three government entities.”

Agon Sports likely will seek $41 million in stadium bonds from CCDC, which has the authority to issue bonds backed by tax increments generated by new tax revenues.

CCDC has already done preliminary work to create a new urban renewal district in the area that could be in place by 2018, said John Brunelle, CCDC’s executive director. CCDC would be the bond issuers with tax increment gains generated by Greenstone, Brunelle said in an interview. “They would need to create the value to generate tax revenue.”

CCDC would issue a 20-year bond, during which time CCDC would own the stadium, just as CCDC owned the Ada County Courthouse until that bond was paid off in 2016 and CCDC now owns Boise Centre East. Both projects were built with CCDC bonds.

CCDC is the city’s urban renewal agency.

“What’s nice about working with sports-oriented developers is they take the fan experience into account,” Brunelle said. “Public event venues have been proven to be beneficial in an urban setting. They have to be done in a certain way. They need to be active as many nights as possible.”

The Boise Hawks season runs June to Labor Day and the USL soccer season is March to October. Concerts and other family events will also be scheduled, Eiseman said.

GBAD Executive Director Pat Rice said the district can “participate” in the stadium. GBAD owns and operates the Boise Centre.

“Nobody has said exactly this is what we want from the district,” Rice said. “Can we participate with cash? Maybe. There’s certainly been a suggestion of cash. Maybe we run the concessions. Do we help operate it? There’s a lot of generalities out there.”

Boise City Council member Scot Ludwig acted as a middle man during the negotiations among the parties.

“The Boise Hawks, Greenstone Properties, and St. Luke’s Health System have stepped-up in their own respective and important way to make this multi-use Stadium closer to reality,” Ludwig said in a news release.” Now it is time for the city of Boise, CCDC, and GBAD to do the same in keeping with our commitment to preserve and enhance the quality of life Boisean’s cherish as we grow and seek new economic development opportunities.”

Boise Mayor David Bieter has long sought a downtown stadium.

“This public space has the potential to be an epicenter for athletics, festivals and community events all our residents can enjoy and celebrate,” Bieter said in a news release. “With retail, restaurants and office space, this multi-use urban stadium and surrounding development will be the cornerstone of our growing River Street neighborhood in Downtown.”

Baseball and soccer will be equals at downtown Boise stadium

The Boise Hawks propose a stadium ideally suited for soccer and baseball. Image courtesy of Boise Hawks.

The Boise Hawks envision building a stadium equally for two sports. On baseball nights, it will feel like a baseball stadium. On soccer nights, the hallmarks of a soccer stadium will be in place – not the common dynamic of a soccer stadium shoehorned onto a baseball field.

Agon Sports and Entertainment and Greenstone Development brought on Tad Shultz, president of International Stadia Design, to create a home field for soccer and baseball.

“The home plate entrance is designed as a new Boise piazza,” Shultz said in a news release. “It’s a living room for the city to hold concerts, events, and festivals.

“When the stadium is used for soccer,” he continued, “the left field wall pads are removed to expose an open-air Club Lounge at field elevation. It will be filled with passionate fans as players pass through on their exit from the locker room to the pitch, directly on axis with the Hawks Nest tower across the park.

The Hawks Nest is beyond the right field fence for baseball and aligned directly for soccer.

“The 14th Street elevation of the ballpark is the Hawk’s Nest, anchored by the central, multi-level tower and dynamic “nest” structure,” Shultz said. “It is centered in the soccer pitch. An open viewing terrace runs from the nest down the first base line and is conceived as flex space.”

Workforce housing proposal is in play for Ash and River streets

A three-story, 31-unit workforce housing apartment complex is proposed for Ash and River streets. Photo courtesy of Capital City Development Corp.

A Boise/Portland development team proposes to build a three-story, 31-unit workforce apartment building on the Nevada-shaped .71-acre parcel at River and Ash streets, across from Payette Brewing and alongside the Pioneer Corridor bicycle-and-pedestrian path.

Eugene, Ore.-based deChase Miksis, headed by Dean Papé in Boise and Gerding Eldlen Development in Portland, are in exclusive negotiations for a development agreement with the Capital City Development Corp., the city’s redevelopment agency. CCDC owns the property, which it assembled from 2006 to 2011.

The historic Hayman House, which stands at one corner, will be preserved.

CCDC’s Sept. 30 request for proposals drew two proposals by the Nov. 15 deadline, but Gardner Co. later withdrew its proposal, said Shellan Rodriguez, CCDC’s project manager for property development.

“By the time the award came (in December), there was only one applicant,” she said.

The $7.34 million Ash and River proposal could start construction toward the end of the year, according to the developers’ proposal.

Ash and River Apartments are proposed for an oddly shaped property resembling Nevada's shape. Image courtesy of Capital City Development Corp. — Ash and River Apartments are proposed for an oddly shaped property resembling Nevada’s shape. Image courtesy of Capital City Development Corp.

The negotiations await a completed restricted-use appraisal of the property, based on CCDC’s requirement that the apartments be affordable for individuals and families earning between 80 and 140 percent of the local average median wage so that no more than 35 percent of the wage goes to rent or mortgage payments, according to the CCDC request for proposals.

The initial sales price was $645,000. The final negotiated sales price likely will be refundable to the developer at the project’s completion, an incentive also in play at the nearby The Afton condos construction site, Rodriguez said.

Gerding Eldlen and deChase Miksis agreed to maintain workforce housing pricing through 2025.

Papé declined to speak to the Idaho Business Review about the project, citing ongoing negotiations with CCDC.

The project architects are Pivot North in Boise, a new architecture firm composed of former Hummel Architects architects, and GGLO Design of Seattle, which also designed The Afton. The general contractor is Visser Building Company of Boise.

Grove Plaza has reopened

A new Grove Plaza opened surrounded by a new Boise Centre East and Clearwater Building. Photo by Teya Vitu. — A new Grove Plaza has opened. It’s surrounded by a new Boise Centre East and Clearwater Building. Photo by Teya Vitu.

The Grove Plaza reopened Nov. 11 after a six-month, brick-by-brick reconstruction of downtown Boise’s iconic gathering place.

The plaza had been largely fenced off since May 19 as all the bricks and the old fountain were removed and replaced with 250,000 new bricks and a new fountain.

A large portion of the plaza had been open since Sept. 20 with access on the east spoke from Capitol Boulevard and the Basque Block. Except for 10 days in October, there has always been an access corridor on the south spoke from Front Street.

The south spoke will remain largely a Boise Centre expansion construction zone until April, but the rest of the plaza is open, with the fountain space now occupied by the city’s holiday tree, said Doug Woodruff, project manager for capital improvements at the Capital City Development Corp., which owns Grove Plaza.

The $4.9 million project replaced all the bricks; planted 33 new trees encased in suspended pavement systems called Silva cells; and is adding two, family-style restrooms attached to the Boise Centre that will open in April.

Honey locust trees were planted around the fountain, and sweet gum trees are on the north and south forks as well as along Eighth Street through BoDo and to River Street.

The 14,000 engraved bricks were all re-engraved on new bricks and 2,550 new engraved bricks have been added with engraved bricks still for sale through Dec. 31 for $60 or $100.

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Tag: Capital City Development Corp.