Buy Dirt & Wait: Boise-area retail

A building permit has finally been issued to demolish the Perkins Restaurant location on Broadway. This will pave the way for the new Chik-fil-A restaurant planned for the site.

The business listings from Arthur Berry are always interesting. Some of them are obvious (or named), and some you have to read the tea leaves a bit to figure out what is for sale. A few of the items on the block:

• The Bouquet bar. This has been a downtown landmark and has changed hands a number of times. I believe it is currently vacant, though still full of its fixed-assets.
• Downtown Boise core restaurant. Sounds like it is on 8th Street and less than two years old in a 1,945 square foot space. Ownder moving out of state. 
• Nampa Restaurant & lounge - $269k
• “Well-established nightclub/restaurant” - $250k
• “Passively operated” restaurant & lounge in McCall that is “Renowned.” Hmmm…
• “Boise’s oldest flower shop.” It’s an FTD outlet. I have a few guesses. Here’s the one-sheet 

Drive through taco chain Del Taco (not to be confused with Taco Del Mar) hopes to add a location at Franklin & Orchard, on a pad right next to that Dutch Bros. in the Fred Meyer parking lot. Presently, Del Taco has three Boise-area locations: on Broadway, in Meridian and in Nampa. 

Erstad Architects proposes the plan below. PDS lately seems to prefer folks not have the drive-through lane wrap around the building next to the streets like depicted here… we’ll see what happens. (Del Taco on the right, Dutch Bros. on the left):

Finally all those empty lots downtown are going to be put to good use! OK, not really. Idapro Indoor Golf Center is set to open in BoDo. The attraction will go in a 2600 square foot location in Bodo that has never been occupied before — at 333 Capitol Blvd.

The center already has a website - thought details are somewhat scarce. Idapro promises indoor virtual golf that will open year-round. The building permit was issued last month.

UPDATE: A grading building permit has finally been issued for the Dutch Bros. coffee location slated for the northwest corner of Franklin & Orchard (on a pad site in the Fred Meyer parking lot). This news was first noted by KTVB a few months ago, and work is now slated to begin any time…

After fielding a few locations in the Treasure Valley (two on Eagle Rd., and one in Nampa), Qdoba is set to open a Boise store.

The fast casual Mexican restaurant has secured a building permit for a location in the Ram Plaza at the corner of Broadway & Front/Park. Qdoba is owned by San Diego-based Jack in the Box, and this new location will compete with nearby Baja Fresh - located just over the river across from Bronco Stadium. 

(PS: it is pronounced Q - dough - buh…)

Dennis Dillon is adding Fiat to its lineup of dealerships at the Orchard St. location. Remodel work is underway at the 2495 S. Orchard dealership to house the area’s first Fiat dealership.

Dennis Dillion is also revamping its GMC showroom where Orchard St. & the freeway meet.

BOISE - Downtown Boise is about to get another restaurant.  Cameron Lumsden filed paperwork with the City of Boise Monday to remodel a 1600 square foot space at 807 W. Idaho Street into a 67-seat restaurant.

Public details on the restaurant aren’t plentiful, by Lumsden plans to revamp the space with new floors, a new steel awning and by replacing existing windows with an overhead-door-type structure reminiscent of the nearby Taphouse.

The 807 Idaho space is currently empty, but last held a Palmercash T-Shirt outlet.

Lumsden has a pretty good track record - serving as COO of Flatbread Community Oven and then opening Fork about 15 months ago.  Fork (easily my favorite local restaurant) has been a rousing success - so it will be interesting to see what Lumsden’s group comes up with next.

(PS: The “Spoon” name is a joke… filings did not make it clear what the name or even type of restaurant would open… but if Liquid can spawn Solid… anything is possible).

I haven’t decided how much “reblogging” to do - that is, posting what other folks already dug up. I’m mostly interested in original reporting. Unlike my former Idaho Radio News blog - which was the only voice in the niche, the retail development area is somewhat served by the Idaho Business Review and the Idaho Statesman (and to a lesser extent Boise Weekly and my employer, KTVB). For two of those sources, the information often hides behind a paywall (IBR and Statesman) - and most people aren’t going to the work to deal with that. When news sits outside a paywall, I’ll link to it. If not, I won’t.

BOISE - Last year, I broke news (here’s an RT of that original post) that Chik-fil-A will soon branch out beyond its current “Express” location on campus at Boise State. The chicken sandwich shop first plotted to open on Broadway on the lot of the currently vacant Perkins restaurant location.

But very little has happened on the site - and the Perkins restaurant still stands - albeit closed. So what’s up? 

Chik-fil-A won approval from planning & zoning despite objections from Green Star LLC (which owns the local Carl’s franchise) and Deli George - both of which are right next door to the new restaurant. Reps for both eateries stressed they welcomed Chik-fil-A to the neighborhood, but were worried about site design. 

Green Star appealed the approval - which slowed the process down. Their chief complaints are the design of the drive through - including its general lack of an escape lane and the way headlights would shine directly into the Carl’s Jr. drivethrough. The appeal went up to City Council.  The council ruled in favor of Chik-fil-A, but imposed a few additional design review conditions. Those restrictions are designed to help cut down on glare in the Carl’s Jr. dining room, but the escape lane issue is essentially unchanged (there is an escape pathway, but it does not span the entire distance of the drivethrough).

All the wrangling pushed the project back - and final design review came through in March, allowing the actual process of getting the restaurant built to commence… 

BOISE - The latest local outlet for Jimmy John’s is headed to the Boise Bench. JJ’s will open at the northeast corner of Vista Ave. & Overland Rd. The drivethrough will squeeze on to the postage-stamp sized lot once occupied by a gas station (of late the site has hosted EZ Auto Sales and Budget Car Rental… but has been mostly vacant over the past few years).

The original structure on the site has been torn down and work has begun on the sandwich shop. .

The effort to put a drive through on this spot has been fraught. A coffee shop and failed to get approval in 2006 - and the folks behind the JJ’s had their conditional use permit turned down in 2011, before redesigning the lot and trying again. The location had its drivethrough along the perimeter of the property along Overland and Vista - but the City of Boise took the words of Amy Weinhouse to heart (No, no, no).  

So developer came back, rearranged the plot and applied again. City Planners asked them to make further changes (related to the building’s setback along Overland) — and finally won approval.

The site plan (with City-required changes overlaid in red):

Disclosure: Though I have no direct interest, my immediate family owns and operates Vista Village which is about 1/4 mile north of Jimmy John’s. The shopping center houses both a competing sandwich shop and a drive-through restaurant.

The late Hollywood Market - owned by the colorful character Margaret Lawrence before her death last year is up for sale. The market is/was located on Eighth Street in the North End

Who wants to buy Hollywood Market?It’s back on the market.

— Scott Nicholson (@scott_nicholson) May 9, 2012

MERIDIAN - A massive new development is planned for the corner of one of Idaho’s busiest intersections, and it may be one of the Valley’s most ambitious since the completion of Boise Towne Square in 1988.

Meridian Town Centre is planned for a 60-acre chunk of dirt in the southeast quadrant of Eagle Rd. & Fairview Ave.  The first anchor of the project - a Big Al’s entertainment center - is just weeks away, but it will stand amidst a mostly empty dirt field at launch. (As a note, some documents say “Centre” and others say “Center” - I’ll go the French route today).

Several other tenants are also announced for the center: Marshall’s, Gordman’s, Petco, Gap Outlet and Chik-fil-A. 

But CenterCal Properties obviously has big plans for the area beyond just six announced retailers.  It says it already has lease agreements for 200,000 square feet of the “current retail space.” The center is planned for 500,000 square feet. 

Architectural plans for the center layout many highly-specific additional retail types. While it’s impossible to know how the final tenant mix will come together, here’s what CenterCal is putting down on paper.

In the main center, plans call for several different restaurant types - including yogurt, candy, pizza, Mexican grill, a diner, burger joint, Italian, contemporary American and a wine bar. Non-edible retailers include women’s accessories, children’s boutique, spa, toys, “men’s island apparel,” electronics, outdoor apparel, fitness, furniture, lingerie, stationary, skin care and shoes.

Pad sites and non-core retail buildings could include a bank, grocery, pet store, cosmetics, sporting goods, phone, bike shop, another pizza joint, men’s apparel, a matters store and several other restaurants.

A 32,000 square foot theater is planned in addition to the Big Al’s center.

CenterCal likens this project to the Bridgeport Village complex in Tigard, OR. That project is anchored by a Crate & Barrel high-end furniture and home goods store - and at least one (admittedly loosey-goosey) rendering shares some of the distinct architectural details found on many Crate stores (the wording in that sign below reads “Furniture.”)

Bridgeport Village is on the higher-end, with stores like a Sax Fifth Avenue outlet and valet service (in which the $4 fee is waived if you pull up in an Audi). It also has a Tommy Bahama store - which sounds a bit like that “men’s island apparel” description above.” 

The adjacent Julius M. Kleiner Park is set to have two small lakes, a gazebo, open space, basketball courts and space for “future residential.”

In all, more than 100 stores are hoped for.

You might remember this 2010 story on the Doubletree Club on ParkCenter Blvd. housing Boise State students. Now it looks like the concept may expand. The hotel’s owner received approval last fall to convert the hotel into a permanent residence facility. The hotel would no longer accept outside guests, and would install kitchens in each room for students. The current status of the project is unclear - but signage on the building is missing currently, however Doubletree is still taking online reservations for the facility.