Forty years of stories attest to growth in Idaho

From malls to Micron and houses to highways, Idaho Business Review has covered the growing Gem State for 40 years. Though there is really no end to the stories we’ve reported on each year since 1984, we couldn’t possibly fit them all within these pages.

Here, then, are snippets of the notable stories from the four decades IBR has been operating and bringing you the business news you want and need.

June 4, 1984

Computer firm expands market

Micron Technology, Inc. , which began its public stock sale last week, is also in the process of expanding its market.

A Micron official confirmed that the company has hired a Japanese-speaking sales representative who will help the company develop broader markets in the far East.

A sales representative for the firm said many Micron products have found their way to European markets where the company has made inroads in England, France and Italy.

In addition, a high-ranking Micron official said the Irish government has offered the firm $25 million to establish a production facility in that nation.

Micron is known for its production of dynamic random access memories (DRAMS) with a 65 k byte capacity. The most common size for the currently popular personal computers, Micron holds the edge by being able to manufacture chips that are smaller than others.

Feb. 11, 1985

J.R. Simplot: Still the potato king

Idaho agricultural baron J.R. Simplot built his fortune by providing dehydrated potatoes for GIs in World War II. The profits keep rolling today from billion-dollar sales of fast-food French fries.

Simplot says anyone could have done the same by following the principles of free enterprise.

“Here in America, we can build a Utopia for many more thousands and millions of people,” he said. “We’re going to do it on the system that built it, the ol’ free enterprise system. That’s the only system that’ll work.”

Seventy-nine-year-old John Richard “Jack” Simplot flies a huge American flag above his hilltop mansion as a bold demonstration of his patriotism.

He says his fervent belief in capitalism and America has not been soured by embarrassing run-ins with the Internal Revenue Service and federal commodities regulators.

Hard-knuckled free enterprise is the secret to Simplot’s success and he asserts that devotion to capitalism can save the world.

June 23, 1986

Westpark site in Boise picked for regional mall

The Boise regional shopping mall will be built at Westpark.

The announcement ends 20 years of controversy and opens the door to nearly $100 million a year in shopping transactions that, it is hoped, will transform the economy of Boise from one of near stagnation to one of hope and plenty.

Duaine Rassmussen, director of site acquisition for the Price Development Co. of Salt Lake City, told The Idaho Business Review his company will build the mall at Westpark the 70-care section of land at Franklin and Cole Roads in west Boise. Construction is to begin in August and continue for two years, with the mall opening in late summer or early fall of 1988.

The mall will be 850,000 square feet and built on two levels, and its estimated cost is expected to exceed $50 million. Rassmussen said plans for the mall are still in the design phase right now, but plans called for construction to begin August.

“We have been working with this for five to six year now,” he said, “and it is a real pleasure to be able to announce this mall.”

Rassmussen said, “The anchor stores signed up now are the Bon Marche and J.C. Penney’s, and we are still negotiating with a third anchor.”

April 20, 1987

Five companies make 500 list

Forbes ranks the 500 largest companies according to sale, profits, assets and market value. Since not all companies are included in each category, a total of 790 companies were included in the directory this year.

Five Idaho companies made the list this year all of which are based in Boise. This gives Boise the distinction of being one of only 40 cities nationwide with headquarters of five or more Forbes 500 companies.

While Albertson’s Inc. sales grew by only 6.3% last year, its profits surged by almost 18%. This makes Albertson’s the 124th largest U.S. company in sales and the 337th most profitable company in the country. Although Boise Cascade Corp.’s sales and earnings were relatively flat last year, its stock performance paralleled the outstanding performance of Albertson’s. Both companies’ common shares outpaced the overall market by 18% in 1986.

The other three Idaho Forbes 500 companies’ profit and stock market rankings did not fare as well last year. Idaho Power Co.’s profits declined slightly from the record years of 1985 and 1986.

Moore Financial Corp.’s stock severely underperformed the market last year reflecting significant write-offs in mid-1986 caused in part by depressed conditions in Idaho’s resource-based economy during the last several years.

Morrison-Knudsen Corp.’s soft earnings, however, are not likely to improve this year as business conditions in the heavy construction markets remain weak.

July 11, 1988

INEL lab will add new wing

IDAHO FALLS A new 5,300-square-foot laboratory and processing wing will be added to the INEL Research center (IRC), an Idaho National Engineering Laboratory facility.

The new wing, to be built onto the east and south sections of the IRC, will house three areas a biotechnology lab unit, a bioprocessing engineering unit and a greenhouse/environmental macrocosm unit.

Construction will start this summer and occupation of the facility is expected in 1989. With the addition of the proposed new wing, EG&G Idaho’s biotechnology group will be able to increase its research breadth and, and the same time, expand its research and development capabilities to include the important task of scaling up from bench-scale laboratory operations to proof-of-concept tests.

The biotechnology wing will provide additional regular labs along with a transfer room for microbial work requiring a sterile environment.

Sept. 4, 1989

Mtn. Home prepares for ‘boom’

MOUNTAIN HOME Every year one of the biggest celebrations here is Air Force Appreciation Day, a chance for the community to show its appreciation to its military neighbors.

Maybe this year more than others, Mountain Home, which has a population of approximately 9,000, has much to thank the Air Force for.

The realignment of the military bases around the country has netted Mountain Home Air Force Base, which is located 10 miles southwest of Mountain Home, is Elmore Country’s largest employer. The recent military realignment proposal includes transferring the F-111A aircraft and personnel to Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. But, the F-4 E and G (the G model is also known as the Wild Weasel) from George Air Force Base in California will be transferred to Mountain Home.

A shift in the U.S. Air Force units during the next three years is expected to make the base one of the nation’s top electronic warfare centers.

The transfers would result in Mountain Home AFB netting 59 additional aircraft and an estimated 2,000 personnel. That’s not including the expected civilian personnel and the families that accompany them.

April 30, 1990

Law firm was started during gold rush

Running away from home at age 15 to follow the gold rush, James Hawley was later to establish what is today Idaho’s oldest law firm.

After working as a prospector and laborer in the mines, he prepared himself for a career in law by attending college in San Francisco and through self study.

Returning to Idaho, Hawley spent time in the Boise Basin, including Idaho City, Placerville and Quartsburg. On Feb. 14, 1873, he received his license to practice law in the Boise Basin, and a law firm was born.

In the late 1890s, Hawley came to Boise, where he opened an office in the Grunbaum Building on 8th Street.

Hawley’s son, Jess, joined the law firm in 1903 and the firm became known as Hawley Puckett and Hawley. The practice remained at the 8th Street location.

In 1910, the senior Hawley was elected governor of Idaho, a post he filled until 1913. When he died in 1927, the firm continued with his son as senior partner.

In 1964, Hawley and Hawley merged with two other partners, Paul Ennis and Robert Troxell.

[In 1988], First Interstate Center became home to Hawley Troxell.

March 4, 1991

Eagle plans for growth; Overflow from Boise may double population

EAGLE Mayor Steve Guerber expects Eagle’s population of 4,000 could double within the next five to 10 years as more people discover the community located six miles from Boise on Highway 44.

City officials are expecting the growth because developers are running out of room to build new subdivisions in Boise, so are looking in other parts of Ada County.

“That kind of growth is going to impact the four primary needs: water, sewer, roads and schools,” said Guerber. “We are carrying out a planning process right now to assure that we are going to deal with those needs as well as provide the entities parks, open spaces, green belts that make people want to live in a community like ours.”

Presently at least 1,095 housing units are proposed for the city of Eagle, which is known for its Eagle Fun Days and Rocky Mountain Oyster Feed.

Developer Bryce Peterson said he’s looking at Eagle to put in a 534-home subdivision to be named Floating Feather Hills. The development would be built over the next 10 years. Peterson has set aside property for a school and received preliminary approval from the Eagle City Council on Feb. 26.

March 30, 1992

HP to hire 400 more workers

Hewlett-Packard Boise Division will add 400 persons to its existing staff of 3,600 employees within the next six months. HP’s annual payroll including benefits was $194 million in 1991.

Business growth and the success of new Boise products has led to the increase in personnel, said Mark Falconer, public relations spokesperson.

The 400 new hires will be distributed across the board to the company’s four manufacturing divisions and other HP departments, said Falconer. HP’s four Boise Divisions are: the Printer Division, which makes desktop LaserJet printers; the Network Printer Division, which makes the LaserJet III Si; the Network server Division, which builds desktop servers for PCs; and the Disk Memory Division.

The Boise Division is also home to a site operations section, three vice presidents and an executive vicep president.

“This (the additional 400 personnel) is a significant spike in our employee growth but it’s not unlike other growth spurts in our company’s history,” said Falconer.

In 1988, HP employed 2,700 people; in 1989 it employed 3,000; in 1990 it employed 3,500; and in 1991 it employed a little more than 3,500.

April 26, 1993

Channel 2 moves into new studios

After 40 years of television broadcasting at 1007 W. Jefferson Street, KBCI Channel 2 has moved into the former Buttrey’s supermarket-Club Wholesale building at 16th and Idaho streets in Boise.

Including purchase of the 88,000-square-foot building and remodeling of the approximately 28,000 square feet KBCI started using in mid-April, the parent company, Northwest Television, Inc., of Eugene, Oregon, spent approximately $3 million on the new property, said KBCI general manager, Tim Bever.

Northwest, which as owned KBCI for 7 years, is a small group of private investors that owns television stations in Roseburg and Coos Bay, Oregon, as well as Boise and Eugene. The station was founded by a group of Boise investors, including the late Mayor H. Westerman Whillock and the late Joe Albertson. It was sold to Eugene Television, Inc., which became Northwest Television, Inc.

“We essentially bought a city block and will continue to rent the additional space to Club Wholesale Office Supply,” Bever said.

Bever explained the difficulty of finding a suitable location downtown. One of the requirements was a microwave link with their facilities below Shaffer Butte and on Deer Point.

“We have been real committed to staying downtown,” Bever explained, “but one of the problems was finding a building that we could get into that wasn’t 50 years old with all the problems a 50-year-old building has.”

Aug. 29, 1994

Oversupply of housing is possible, banker says

“Idaho hasn’t sewn the seed of an oversupply in housing,” says Kelly Matthews, chief economist for the First Security Corp., based in Salt Lake City.

“But if building continues at its present rate for the next few years, it will happen,” he adds. “Builders, planners and municipal people should be looking at it.”

Matthews is speaking at the 1994 Idaho Governor’s Conference on Housing, attended by 230 government, financial and construction people.

“Ada Country house sales have kept pace with the number of permits,” Matthews continues. “Maybe some people believe that houses have stayed longer on the market, but data doesn’t show that.”

This is Idaho’s seventh consecutive record construction year, Matthews says, which has been influenced by a rapid increase in jobs and population growth.

Since 1988, Idaho’s job rise has been the second fastest in the United States, he says.

And population has grown by 30,000 three-fourths consisting of people moving from elsewhere in each of the last few years.

Feb. 20, 1995

Fred Meyer unveils plans for Locust Grove center

A 190,000-square-foot neighborhood shopping center, dominated by a Fred Meyer store of 171,000 square feet, is expected to be built at Fairview Avenue and Locust Grove Road over the next 18 months.

The Fred Meyer outlet will be the company’s third and largest “one-stop” grocery and department/variety store in the Boise area. A 167,000-square-foot store was opened at Overland and Five Mile roads last August, and Freddie’s has had a 146,000-square-foot store on Chinden Boulevard since 1985.

A typical Albertson’s supermarket, for comparison, is 55,000 square feet.

The shopping center, plus a mini-storage complex, is to be built on a 40-acre tract at the northeast quadrant of Fairview and Locust Grove that was annexed by the City of Meridian in November.

The 20-acre center will include a KeyBank, near the corner of the intersection; a McDonald’s restaurant; several other retail outlets; and a 6,000-square-foot “multi-tenant building.”

Jan. 15, 1996

New office tower gets a green light

An eight-story office tower with some retail space on the ground floor, planned at 5th and Grove streets across from C.W. Moore Park, has been given the green light by downtown planners.

The 96,000-square-foot project, proposed by the Boise architectural firm CSHQA, has been granted design-review approval by the Capital City Development Corp., the city’s urban renewal agency.

The project had been put on hold in December when an opinion from the city attorney’s office indicated it violated a four-story height restriction contained in an urban renewal plan.

The CCDC board voted unanimously to endorse the project, with conditions, after a revised city attorney’s opinion said the height restriction could not be applied.

The new opinion, by Deputy City Attorney Margery Weir-Smith, says a four-story guideline for the area, contained in the River Street-Myrtle Street Urban Renewal Plan, had “never been delineated on a zoning map,” and therefore did not carry the force of zoning law.

April 7, 1997

Idaho’s minimum wage now $4.75; will increase to $5.15 in September

Effective April 1, the Idaho and federal minimum hourly wage are once again the same.

During its recent session, the Idaho Legislature matched the new federal minimum wage $4.75 which had been put into effect Oct. 1 of last year. Previously the federal minimum wage was $4.25.

Ken Flatt, labor relations supervisor for the Idaho Department of Labor, said Idaho’s wage remained at $4.25 from October through March. Many of the state’s employers did not know which wage to use, and the matching of Idaho and federal minimum wages eliminates this problem, he added.

On Sept. 1, the federal and Idaho minimum wage will increase to $5.15 per hour.

Since 1990 Idaho has matched the federal minimum wage except as it relates to employees who receive tips, Flatt Said.

Feb. 2, 1998

Fisher’s eyes consolidation, acquisitions

Fisher’s Office Equipment is looking to purchase a building of 10,000 to 15,000 square feet which would bring the company’s two existing Boise locations under one roof, then serve as a base from which Fisher’s would look to acquire other companies throughout Idaho.

Gregg Alger, president and co-owner, said the company has three locations under consideration.

“Our focus is within a one- to two-mile radius of downtown Boise,” he said. He would not elaborate, except to say high visibility is a priority.

Fisher’s is looking to buy an existing building so it can move in by the end of its fiscal year (June), Alger said. The company’s new home, likely to be completely remodeled, would have a large showroom and a large service and support center.

Currently, Fisher’s leases a service center at 555 E. 42nd Street in Garden City and a sales center at 825 W. Idaho Street in downtown Boise.

Dec. 20, 1999

Developers wrangle over Boise Tower delays

Three prominent Boise developers and a downtown property owner, las week asked the Capital City Development Corp. to declare the Boise Tower project in default and open the site to new development proposals.

Tower developer Rick Peterson, in a response, said the move was a bid to undermine the project at a crucial stage, when non-binding reservations for the Tower’s 110 condominium units were being converted into firm sales contracts.

At issue: A 25-story, $60 million retail-office-condominium tower proposed at Eighth and Idaho streets. The project and predecessor designs date from 1994. The last in a series of construction deadlines was last August.

July 3, 2000

5 leave Alliance, form title firm, plan 3 outlets

Five former employees of Alliance Title & Escrow Corp., Boise, have formed a new firm, Title One, and plan to begin competing with the Valley’s seven existing title insurance firms this month.

Title One is slated to open July 17, and is setting up its main office in a 4,600-square-foot office on the second floor of the Golden Eagle office building, 11th and River streets.

“We feel like we will thrive,” said Title One President mark Tidd, who was senior vice president for Ada and Canyon counties at Alliance and previously CFO.

Title One employees who came from Alliance, in addition to Tidd, are Vice President and General Counsel Bo Davies, previously president of Alliance 1031 Co.; Vice President Jeff Tunison, former Canyon County manager for Alliance; Justin Seaman, previously a title officer with Alliance; and Marketing Vice President Vicki White.

Brent Lloyd, president of Alliance Title and Escrow Corp. commented, “We are sorry to see them leave our company and we wish them well.”

March 26, 2001

NNU to build 24,000-square-foot business school building

Northwest Nazarene University is building up its business department.

Work began recently on a 24,000-square-foot, two-story building that will cost about $2 million for NNU’s Department of Business and Economics.

“We’re, right now, crammed into a small, pre-World War II building,” said Ron Galloway, chairman of the department. “We have only two classrooms.”

The new building is slated to open in January of next year for the winter semester. It is designed to complement the nearby Brandt Center, a brick building with tinted windows and a “sort of stucco trim at the top,” said Matt York, director of marketing and public relations.

The school in the northeast corner of the campus will include six classrooms, study areas, conference rooms, smaller rooms for meetings, and office space for 20 faculty members and 10 other staff members. The building will include a 163-seat auditorium a room size that’s in high demand, Galloway said.

Dec. 9, 2002

$12 million Caldwell YMCA to be built by ’04

The Caldwell YMCA will be a $10 million to $12 million complex targeted for completion in late 2004, people involved in the project said last week.

To be designed by ZGA Architects & Planners Chartered, Boise, the YMCA will contain three pools, exercise and sports facilities of various kinds, and space for several community groups.

A single-story facility of 85,000 to 90,000 square feet is envisioned, said Art Albanese, a principal at ZGA, officials of which were meeting with community representatives to scope out details of the building’s components.

Carl Woodburn, co-chair of the Caldwell YMCA Steering Committee, said requests for proposals probably would be sent to contractors sometime in January.

July 28, 2003

Work begins in Star on 120-acre complex

Construction of a mixed-use development of 120 acres has begun on the north side of the Boise River in Star.

Pinewood Lakes is to include 258 homes, a 5-acre commercial development tabbed for neighborhood services, 43 acres of park and pathway space, and 10 acres of lakes and waterway. The site lies on the south side of Idaho 44 a quarter-mile west of Star Road.

“It’s really the first large-scale PUD (planned unit development) for the City of Star involving all of the different housing products along with commercial services,” said Project Coordinator Sandi Johnson.

By fall, development is expected to conclude on 29 patio home lots, 19 lots of 1/3-acre and larger, eight “streamside” home lots, and 19 lots for homes of bungalow or “craftsman” style.

Johnson expects the project to be done in five phases, including another 75 lots in the summer and fall of next year.

Feb. 2, 2004

Sale of 104 lots brings in $46 million, Tamarack says

Short on cash since their project’s inception, developers of the proposed Tamarack Resort near Cascade banked $46 million last week after closing the deal on the first 104 lots at what could be the nation’s first ski resort to be built in two decades.

“Tamarack has just made a rapid transition from a vision to spectacular reality,” said Rory Veal, Tamarack’s vice president for real estate sales.

Resort CEO Jean-Pierre Boespflug said reservations for another 68 units are expected to be converted to sales this year, and that the delayed opening of the resort’s ski hill should take place next winter.

The infusion of $46 million from lot sales comes at a critical time for the resort’s development. Boespflug and his Tamarack partners turned to New Jersey-based Kennedy Funding for a quick $18 million loan last November to carry the project through its early stages of road development, utility work, and site preparation, including for the golf course. Plans call for 2,043 units of housing, ranging from single-family homes to cottages and chalets to hotel rooms.

Jan. 10, 2005

From one gas station in Caldwell, Idahoan builds $600 million C-store colossus

Jacksons Food Stores Inc. occupies a newish two-story headquarters in Meridian, where CEO John Jackson is positioned strategically in an office near the front door.

“It keeps me a little closer to the action,” he said. “I can see who comes and goes, and it’s easier for me to come and go.”

Jackson, 50, started with a single service station in Caldwell in 1975, and still takes a small-business approach to heading the company, which today operates about 120 Jacksons convenience stores in eight Western states, plus grocery wholesaler Capitol Distributing and fuel distributor Jackson Oil. They’re based in a 20,000-square-foot building on Commercial Street, east of Eagle Road, opened five years ago.

The businesses employ about 1,100 combined and were expected to generate nearly $600 million in revenue last year.

“I still think we’re small,” Jackson said. “It seems like the bar continually rises on you. There is so much consolidation going on in our industry, like all industries. We have grown, and so have our competitors.”

Jackson, who spends about half his time on the road for business or volunteer-service reasons, still isn’t above picking up a broom or mop when he visits his stores.

“Do we run it as a small business? In a lot of ways, we do,” he said. “Our culture and personalities are still small business.”

April 3, 2006

New developer gives eyesore a facelift

A deal with a new developer revives the long-stalled Boise Tower project at Eighth and Main streets downtown.

Capital City Development Corp. board members unanimously approved Charterhouse Boise Downtown Properties LLC to take over for Rick Peterson as developer.

Peterson, of Bellevue, Washington, started planning the 25-story, mixed-use building in 1997 but never secured financing. He recommended Charterhouse, headed by Gary Rogers of McCall and Jim Knighton of Dallas.

“I think Rick Peterson was ahead of his time,” Rogers said. “He proposed a wonderful project. It was ahead of its time, ahead of the market and ahead of what downtown was ready for.”

Preliminary plans for the new version of the tower call for 86 residential condos down from the 110 Peterson proposed and hotel and retail space, Rogers said.

April 30, 2007

Idaho wine region receives national grape-growing designation

Marketing wine works fine for southwest Idaho vintners, but will work better as word spreads about the area’s new nationwide designation.

“The name Snake River Valley gives us that distinction,” said Neil Glancey, winemaker and general manager at Carmela Vineyards near Glenns Ferry.

Carmela Vineyards has won national awards for its wines. Some people at the competitions would express surprise when they find out the wine was grown in Idaho, Glancey said.

“It gives you distinction to put that appellation on the bottle,” he said. An appellation is a grape-growing region.

In March, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department named the Snake River Valley of southern Idaho and eastern Oregon as an American Viticultural Area. The U.S. now has 236 such areas, a third of which are in California.

May 25, 2008

J.R. Simplot, potato and computer chip king, dies

Billionaire J.R. Simplot, the spud king of America whose wealth also helped create one of the world’s biggest computer chip makers, died Sunday at his Boise home. He was 99.

Ada County Coroner Erwin Sonnenberg said Simplot apparently died of natural causes.

The quintessential Idaho farmer increasingly dominated the state's business and political landscape for 70 years, and the company that bears his name remains a powerful force today in Idaho and beyond.

Simplot and his family were ranked at No. 80 on Forbes magazine's 2006 list of richest Americans, with an estimated wealth of $3.2 billion.

His businesses, still family owned, manufacture agriculture, horticulture and turf fertilizers; animal feed and seeds; food products such as fruits, potatoes and other vegetables; and industrial chemicals and irrigation products.

In 1980, at age 71, Simplot took a gamble on the next generation of businessmen, giving Ward and Joe Parkinson $1 million for 40 percent of what would become computer chip maker Micron Technology Inc. Over the years, he pumped in $20 million more to help Micron build its first manufacturing plant and to stay afloat. Micron went on to become a major producer of DRAM memory chips, which are used to store information in personal computers.

Nov. 9, 2009

Company sees niche for Idaho-made reel

Ketchum-based C1 Design Group LLC, which does business in the fly fishing industry as The Waterworks-Lamson, introduced the high-end Vanquish reel recently. Components are manufactured in the Boise area. The company assembles the reels in Boise at 2772 S. Cole Road, where it recently renewed a lease.

Company principals come from product design and industrial engineering backgrounds. Their efforts have included reducing the total number of parts in reels.

Vanquish “gets its credibility in blue-water, big-game fishing. It’s just a very, very different kind of reel than you would find at that price point,” President Ryan Harrison said.

Many blue-water fly reels at high price points feature technologies in use for decades, he said. “We’re now stepping into that market, offering something very much up-to-date, with the benefits of modern materials not cork.”

July 30, 2010

Tamarack’s event center sold, could re-open soon

Tamarack’s event center could be re-opening in the next two months.

The Pelorus Group of Salt Lake City purchased the foreclosed property from Bank of America for $975,000. The sale was finalized on July 28.

Pelorus Group owner Aaron Wernli said his company plans to run the Arling Center as a regular business, which could host weddings, concerts and other events.

“It was a good business decision,” Wernli said.

He added there was a possibility of the previous management group operating the 14,641-square-foot facility.

Wernli said he would like to see the center operating in the next 60 to 90 days, and people interested in booking events, should contact www.pelorusgroup.com.

Feb. 18, 2011

Idaho Business Review Women of the Year event breaks record

A hand-made chandelier twinkled like glittering diamonds over more than 500 people who gathered Feb. 17 to honor the Idaho Business Review’s Woman of the Year, Heidi Thompson.

The Idaho Business Review honored 50 women in this year’s event in a night of wine, food, music, dance, words of praise and awards.

“This is our sixth year for the Women of the Year event and it was our best ever,” said IBR Vice President and Publisher Sean Evans. “We truly enjoyed celebrating the success and triumphs of some of our state’s most successful women.”

A first this year came at the end of the evening in an Academy Award-like moment as Thompson, president and co-owner of Scentsy, Inc. and one of the 50 honorees was revealed as the 2011 Woman of the Year. A selection committee of past honorees used a rating system covering four critical categories, and Thompson scored highest across the board.

Sept. 11, 2012

An action plan on Trader Joe’s

Idahoans are vigorously courting Trader Joe’s, the natural foods retailer with about 400 stores around the country.

The Facebook page dedicated to attracting a Trader Joe’s to Boise recently hit 4,000 “likes.” The developers of the 500,000-square-foot CenterCal project in Meridian have been promoting their development to the retailer. They say they’d be honored to have Trader Joe’s move in.

But like a shy maiden, Trader Joe’s coyly deflects direct questions. Representatives for the company, which is based in Boston and California, won’t reveal anything about Trader Joe’s take on Boise (if there is one) except to say the Treasure Valley is not in the company’s two- to three-year plan.

But it’s time to face the fact that Trader Joe’s isn’t interested in Boise. Perhaps we just don’t have the critical mass of foodies they need or the critical mass, period.

Oct. 4, 2013

Eighth and Main crane is coming down

The large crane that has been on site for months at Eighth and Main is being disassembled, a sign the building is nearing completion.

ESI Senior Project Manager David Bowar said the tower crane is no longer required. One side of the office tower needs to be finished and closed, but that work can be done with use of a spider crane, from inside the building.

Many different crews are completing the core and shell of the building. Tenant improvements for individual offices and spaces, and first- and second-floor lobby work is on schedule. Site perimeter work will get started in the next few weeks. The building is 95 percent leased, according to Colliers International in Boise.

“We’re on schedule and things are lining up well,” Bowar said.

The $76 million Eighth and Main building is slated to open in January 2014. ESI is the general contractor and CTA Architects Engineers and Babcock Design Group are the architects. Gardner Company is the developer.

Zions Bank and law firm Holland & Hart are the 17-story building’s main tenants. A Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Flatbread Neapolitan Pizzeria, and Zenergy Health Club are among some of the tower’s other tenants.

The building is going up at the site once known as the Boise Hole, an unfinished corner block in a prime location downtown that sat empty for years. It was purchased in 2011 by The Gardner Company.

Oct. 1, 2014

Camille Beckman plans event center, restaurant at Eagle site

Camille Beckman, a company that sells cosmetics and personal care products through thousands of U.S. and international retailers, is building an event center and a high-end French restaurant next to its Eagle headquarters 12 miles northwest of Boise.

The family decided to get moving on the project when Roshan Roghani, the vice president of Camille Beckman and the founders’ daughter, started looking for a place to hold her wedding next summer. She couldn’t find a high-end venue large enough to host her family and friends. That prompted the family to start work on a project they had been thinking about for years, she said.

French chef Franck Bacquet, who now works at a restaurant in downtown Boise, will be in charge of the restaurant, called Le Coq d’Or.

The event center itself will be called Chateau des Fleurs, reflecting both the company’s orientation toward European style and luxury, and Roghani’s belief that young women would like to have their weddings in a European-style venue.

The 105,000-square-foot Camille Beckman factory, administrative offices, and gift shop, which now occupy some of the family’s land at the site on the Boise River, were built in 2002 in a faux Tudor style inspired by the buildings of Stratford-Upon-Avon, the site of William Shakespeare’s birth in England.

Aug. 26, 2015

Another energy bar company buys PowerBar plant in Boise

The former PowerBar plant on Eisenman Road in Boise won’t stand empty for long.

PowerBar shut down a month or so ago with 165 employees, and on Aug. 24 Hearthside Food Solutions announced it would acquire the plant, also to produce nutritional supplement bars. The sale from Post Holdings Inc. is expected to close in September, according to a Hearthside release.

The Downers Grove, Illinois-based Hearthside on the same day announced it was acquiring the Dutch-based producer of non-branded bars, VSI.

“These two transactions will enable the rapid scaling of VSI’s formulations, research and development, product development, and full-scale production in the Americas,” Hearthside said in a release.

Hearthside officials were not immediately available for comment.

“It’s really great to hear that that building will be able to keep doing what it did well,” said Clark Krause, executive director of the Boise Valley Economic Partnership. “They have fantastic machines.”

PowerBar opened the Boise manufacturing plant in 1994.

June 9, 2016

Meridian to get Treasure Valley’s first new Catholic school in 50 years

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise will build its first new school in Idaho in 26 years when construction starts July 11 in Meridian on the St. Ignatius Catholic School on the grounds of Holy Apostles Catholic Church.

St. Ignatius will hold 470 students, grades pre-K to 8. It will also be the first Catholic school built in the Treasure Valley since St. Mark’s Elementary School opened in Boise in 1967. The diocese last built Holy Family Catholic School in Coeur d’Alene in 1990, said Jim Reed, superintendent of Catholic Schools in Idaho.

The diocese covers the entire state.

“This is a big deal,” Reed said. “It has created a lot of energy across the diocese. All the schools are excited. This is exciting that one of our team members is building a school. That rejuvenates development throughout the district.”

St. Paul’s Catholic School in Nampa is in the initial talks about building a replacement school at the new location of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, which opened in April 2013. All Saints Catholic School in Lewiston expects to build a replacement school within five years, Reed said.

Oct. 17, 2017

Created in Poland, 1914 log home is now for sale in Idaho

A home that was built in the Carpathian Mountains of Poland in 1914, dismantled when the Nazis came through, rebuilt, and then moved to Idaho is for sale in Careywood for $175,000.

The 1,400-square-foot mountaintop home has a view of Lake Pend Oreille and antique copper roof, said owner Mary Alderete, whose husband, Derk Klein, found the home and had it dismantled and shipped to northern Idaho for a local buyer.

The home is an example of a distinct architectural style popular in Zakopane, a town in the northern foothills of Poland’s Tatra Mountains. The Tatras are the highest range in the Carpathians and a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. Alderete, who has researched the style, provided materials showing that the area was a health resort and region with a distinct style, language and dress in the late 19th century. A Warsaw artist and art critic named Stanislaw Witkiewicz identified the style of home in that region, saying it held the roots of a Polish national style, and a group of architects eventually constructed many more homes in that style in the early 20th century.

The Careywood home is an example of one such building. Alderete said the home was taken apart and stored when the Nazis came through in 1942 and was rebuilt in 1946.

Jan. 4, 2018

Sears, Macy’s, Kmart closing stores in all corners of Idaho

Magic Valley Mall in Twin Falls will lose two of its four anchors and Silver Lake Mall will lose one of its three anchors in the next few months as Macy’s and Sears move forward with dozens of closures across the country.

Macy’s will begin its clearance sale Jan. 8 in Twin Falls followed by Sears liquidation sales starting as soon as Jan. 12 in Twin Falls and at the Silver Lake Mall in Coeur d’Alene, according to company releases.

In addition, the Kmart store in Ammon is expected to close by the end of January. Sears Holdings owns Sears and Kmart. Boise lost its Kmart in March 2016.

Twin Falls Mayor Shawn Barigar, who is also CEO of the Twin Falls Chamber of Commerce, is leaning on the half-full glass philosophy.

“My initial reaction is it’s the changing face of the retail market,” Barigar said. “We still have robust retail development but it’s happening in different ways.”

Aug. 6, 2019

Construction begins on $45 million office building in downtown Boise

Rafanelli & Nahas hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking for the 11th & Idaho Building, a 10-story, 191,000-square-foot structure.

Boise Mayor Dave Bieter was one of the dignitaries who donned a hard hat and wielded a shovel to get the $45 million mid-rise project started.

Construction of the building would create about 250 jobs during the course of the 15-month building schedule, said Ben Belt, senior project manager for Engineered Structures, Inc., the general contractor. Thew new office building, which would have retail on the ground floor, is expected to anchor hundreds of new jobs.

April 23, 2020

Governor announces staged reopening of Idaho businesses

Idaho is ready to begin coming our of the lockdown instituted to slow the spread of COVID-19.

During a press conference on April 23, Gov. Brad Little announced a phased approach to allow different categories of Idaho businesses to open back up in four timed stages.

Some businesses may need to implement new safety measures to maintain the suppression of new COVID-19 cases, Little stressed, since flattening the curve is not the same thing as eradicating the novel coronavirus.

The published plan contains all the details on which business can reopen during the different phases and what new public safety measures will be required to prevent a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.

Little explained that the full reopening of Idaho’s economy is only possible because “Idahoans have collectively done an incredible job to slow the spread of the coronavirus.”

Little emphasized that without that effort, and without continuing efforts to maintain hygiene and social distancing, the reopening of business would be impossible.

May 19, 2021

Idaho Transportation Department approves Highway 16 extension

The Idaho Transportation Board approved dozens of new road projects across every corner of the state at its regular monthly meeting.

At the top of the list for projects in District 3 was the extension of Idaho State Highway 16, from Chinden Boulevard to Interstate 84. The complete list of projects encompasses $350 million for “shovel-ready” construction work, all of which can begin sometime next year.

Many of the projects are part of Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s “Building Idaho’s Future” transportation funding solution.

Jan. 20, 2022

Repealing the grocery tax: What do businesses say?

For several years, some legislators and citizens have pushed Idaho to stop charging sale tax on groceries, but businesses particularly businesses collecting the sales tax on groceries aren’t in favor of the idea.

As of 2020, Idaho is one of 13 states that charges a sales tax on groceries. The state offsets this by providing a grocery tax credit, and three other states Hawaii, Kansas and Oklahoma also provide such a credit.

Businesses selling food to be consumed at home (as opposed to restaurants, which sell food to be consumed on-site) collect sales tax on food and pay the state; one problem is it isn’t always easy to determine what something is (is it a grocery item versus something else).

Another problem is eliminating the sales tax on food could end up costing the state money, and yet another challenge that could come with eliminating the grocery tax is that the very people it is intended to help could get hurt. That’s because eliminating the grocery tax would also eliminate the grocery tax credit, and lower-income people generally make more on that than they spend on grocery taxes.

July 18, 2023

Multiple offers received for 44-acre property in downtown Boise

A highly sought-after 44-acre property near downtown Boise has been listed for sale, presenting an opportunity for redevelopment along the scenic Boise River.

The State of Idaho has decided to sell the former Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) campus located at Whitewater Park Boulevard and State Street. TOK Commercial, the designated listing agent, accepted offers until July 14.

According to the Department of Administration, TOK Commercial has received nine offers for the Whitewater property. These offers are currently being reviewed by a committee consisting of representatives from various state agencies. Once the committee makes a selection, contract discussion with the chosen bidder will begin.

This property is considered the largest available parcel for development in the downtown, west or north end markets. It is located along State Street and Highway 44 and features a waterfront setting on Esther Simplot Pond. Positioned near a densely populated residential area and just outside the downtown core, the site offers exceptional opportunities for both residential and commercial mixed-use development.

The substantial interest shown through these multiple offers emphasizes the potential of this prime property. Its proximity to downtown Boise and location along the Boise River have attracted attention from developers and investors. As the review process continues, the industry eagerly awaits the committee’s decision, which will shape the future development of the area.

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