Bright Light, Big City…kinda

We all know that the Boise skyline has been changing over the last few years, and quite rapidly. Several well-known businesses in the area have closed and new ones are opening. We have seen the addition of new office buildings, four hotels, condominiums and a new convention center under construction. New living spaces like The Afton, The One Nineteen, The Watercooler and The Fowler are bringing more people into downtown to live the urban lifestyle so many know from Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.

The Owyhee Plaza’s conversion into boutique apartments with retail space and a restaurant underneath, the Olympic concert venue, Barbarian Brewing, and The Atlas have been great additions that have created traction for more business and foot traffic in the west end of downtown. With Trader Joe’s in Downtown Boise on the corner of South Capitol and West Front Street and Whole Foods (Amazon-owned) have made living downtown more reasonable! Sadly, we are watching as Angels is set to close down. When the infamous Downtown Boise “Hole” was filled in by the Zion’s Bank building it brought with it retail space, a gym and various culinary offerings such as Flatbread Pizza and Ruth’s Chris. We are also keeping our eye on the old Davies Reed building on Idaho and 6th to see what will be done when the construction is finalized.

One of the biggest undertakings was the JUMP center and the accompanying Simplot building which will soon be joined by the new convention center and hotel in the old dirt lots at the end of the connector. The revitalization of the Metro Downtown Boise area is awesome to see and reminds us that Boise is still growing and evolving, which is much of what we love about living in the treasure valley. The culture here is so unique and we continue to make several 10 ten lists of living, culture, quality of life, and the latest, hipster! The litmus test will be to see how it all shakes out in the next few years!