See this Boise parking lot? Its days may be numbered. Here’s what a buyer wants to do

David Staats
·2 min read

Take a look at this downtown Boise parking lot. Imagine a big apartment building on it.

That’s what the commissioners of Boise’s urban renewal agency just did. On Monday, the board voted to spend $6.9 million to buy the lot with hopes of enticing a developer to build multifamily housing there.

The 2.1-acre property is on the northwest corner of Front and 3rd streets, across 3rd from the Ada County Courthouse, many of whose employees now use it for parking. The county owns it. It’s a troublesome parcel to develop, because it is shaped like a triangle, not the conventional rectangle.

But there are additional parking lots on the same block. With the county-owned triangular lot in hand, the agency, the Capital City Development Corp., might entice a developer to buy those and develop more multifamily housing than the triangle alone could support.

The agency pulled that off in February when it authorized negotiations with a developer over a smaller parcel it owns in the 1700 block of West Idaho Street, a residential neighborhood just west of downtown. That developer is buying neighboring properties to build more market-rate and affordable housing than the zoning for the agency’s parcel alone would allow.

The Capital City Development Corp., Boise’s urban renewal agency, wants to buy this parking lot on Front Street (left) from Ada County to build housing on it. The county courthouse is to the right (east) of this image. The eight-story, green-windowed building to the west is the C. W. Moore Plaza.
The Capital City Development Corp., Boise’s urban renewal agency, wants to buy this parking lot on Front Street (left) from Ada County to build housing on it. The county courthouse is to the right (east) of this image. The eight-story, green-windowed building to the west is the C. W. Moore Plaza.

“I’m excited we’re moving forward with this,” Commissioner Ryan Woodings told his colleagues Monday. “I know we’ve been looking at this lot for years. … Owning that lot will help us transform that whole block.”

The board’s vote allows the agency’s executive director to finish negotiations and buy the property. One provision would allow the affected county employees to park elsewhere in parking garages owned and operated by the urban renewal agency.

The triangular parking lot at the center of this picture would give way to multifamily housing if Boise’s urban renewal agency gets its way. The parcel is on the northwest corner of Front and 3rd streets. The Ada County Courthouse is at right.
The triangular parking lot at the center of this picture would give way to multifamily housing if Boise’s urban renewal agency gets its way. The parcel is on the northwest corner of Front and 3rd streets. The Ada County Courthouse is at right.

Because the site is county-owned, it has no assessed value in records kept by the Ada County assessor. A private appraiser used five nearby downtown land sales in the past four years, ranging from $57 to $120 per square foot, to value the triangular land at $75 per square foot.