fbpx

BVA tops off Idaho Central Credit Union office building

photo of topping off
A construction worker welds the ceremonial topping-off beam to the Idaho Central Credit Union building at Eagle View Landing. Photo by Sharon Fisher

MERIDIAN – The first building at the new Eagle View Landing development has reached a major construction milestone.

The project, which is constructing a 125,000-square-foot five-story office building for Idaho Central Credit Union (ICCU) at the corner of Eagle and Overland roads, held its topping-off ceremony on Jan. 27. The project developer is Ball Ventures Ahlquist, partnering with Brighton Corp. Like most of ICCU’s other construction projects, the building was designed by Lombard Conrad Architects (LCA).

Tommy Ahlquist, CEO of BVA, reminded attendees that he had been planning to develop this lot – formerly a corn maze – for a long time, adding that he had drawings for it that were 15 years old. ICCU acquired the 52-acre parcel in 2018 and announced later in the year that it would partner with BVA to develop it.

photo of Kent Oram, Idaho Credit Union League Chair
Kent Oram
Tommy Ahlquist

Once it is closer to completion, the bank plans to add about 100 call center employees to the building, said ICCU CEO Kent Oram. ICCU will be occupying about half the building and leasing out the other half, he said.

The ICCU portion of the building is scheduled to open in the fall. It is intended to expand ICCU’s call center, back office support and training areas, and will be the credit union’s second-largest building after its headquarters in Chubbuck, Oram said. A branch at the location is not planned at this time.

Other development progress

Americor, an Irvine, California-based finance technology company that designed a platform to help consumers restructure their debts and get lower cost debt consolidation loans, is also constructing a 75,000-square-foot building at the site. The $20 million, three-story building broke ground in September and is also expected to be completed in the fall.

Developers also plan to build a hotel, golf entertainment, office buildings, medical offices, retail, restaurants and 11 acres of market-rate apartments for families at the mixed-use site. In addition to its central Treasure Valley location, just off the Eagle Road interchange, the site features high visibility from I-84, where more than 133,000 vehicles pass by on a daily basis, according to BVA.

The Farmstead Corn Maze & Pumpkin Festival, which was hosted at the site since 1997, has moved to Kuna.

BVA is also developing a number of buildings at Ten Mile Crossing, located on the north side of the I-84 freeway near the Ten Mile Road interchange in Meridian. Most recently, the company broke ground on a five-story, 125,000-square-foot building to host government services provider Perspecta.

ICCU Star branch in the works

The new building isn’t the only new thing ICCU is doing. The company is also building a branch location in downtown Star, Oram said.

In addition, ICCU – which reached $5 billion in assets at the beginning of the year, making it what it said was the biggest state-chartered financial institution in Idaho – has opened a private client practice to help customers deal with more complex financial needs. ICCU has added six employees to staff the practice, which resides in its Vista location in Boise.

What is a topping-off ceremony, anyway?

Large projects in Idaho frequently hold a topping-off ceremony, typically after the last structural beam is installed. Attendees sign a ceremonial white beam, which has a small tree on one side and an American flag on the other. The beam is then welded into place at the top of the structure, tree and flag and all, though the tree and flag are generally removed at some point.

Originally traced to the Scandinavian religious rite of placing a tree atop a new building to appease the tree-dwelling spirits displaced in its construction, the tree now symbolizes the natural resources used to create the building. Topping-off ceremonies are held in a variety of countries worldwide.