Could a new sports stadium or convention center be coming to Boise? Maybe. Here’s why

What’s the potential for Boise?

What could the city look like in the next decade? In the next two decades? Three?

Could downtown be dominated by glass towers, automated Ubers whizzing people from homes in the Foothills to a Boise State Broncos football game? Or will it be much the same, stagnant after a massive surge of growth in the early 2020s?

Urban planners and architects are already drafting the future of the city, but they would be remiss to not take into account the city’s main convention center: the Boise Centre.

As the dust settles from a recent surge of hotels in the downtown core, the organization that oversees the convention center — the Greater Boise Auditorium District — is already preparing for the next big thing to bring more tourism dollars, more visitors, more conventioneers, to town.

The district is working with Seattle’s Pine Street Group, a developer that worked on the Seattle Convention Center, to find what that next big thing may be. It could be a new sports arena, an expanded convention center, a large-scale hotel, or something else entirely.

The district is requesting bids from organizations that could conduct a feasibility study, and Pine Street Group would help analyze the results.

“I think it is time,” Cody Lund, executive director of Boise Centre, told the Idaho Statesman by phone. “The market has changed drastically since the last time we did a feasibility study,” which was about a decade ago.

In the past, the district was often reactive and waited for developers to reach out about potential projects, which likely led to missed opportunities, Lund said. The new study, he said, is an opportunity for the district to be proactive.

“The district wants to be better prepared for evaluating future projects and opportunities,” said Mary-Michael Rodgers, communication manager for Boise Centre. “The district is really looking to be in that driver’s seat.”

Lund said that he didn’t see a slowdown coming for Boise anytime soon and that the city is finally on the map.

“Boise has become a really hot destination even just for visitors coming here,” Lund said. “I’d love to see that momentum continue.”

On the convention side, “We’re just scratching the surface,” Lund said.

The study, which would likely take several months according to Rodgers, would look at factors including current and unmet market demand, the finances of the district, and what cities Boise could be losing businesses to, such as Spokane or Tacoma.

“We don’t know all the possibilities yet,” Rodgers said. “Maybe there’s possibilities that didn’t exist 10 years ago.”

It’s too early to tell what might come of the study, Rodgers said, but they’ll be looking for what makes the most sense for the district and where it could promote the most economic growth.

Thanks in large part to revenue from its 5% hotel-room tax, Lund said, the district has $21 million in reserves to put toward new projects and $6 million in emergency funds. He estimated the feasibility study would cost between $30,000 and $50,000.

Matt Rosauer, managing partner of Pine Street Group, told the Statesman by phone that Boise is exciting and has an opportunity to grow.

“The attributes of (Boise), the character, the authenticity, the history — it’s unique in the sense that it has an authentic downtown but it also is pedestrian scale and is super walkable,” Rosauer said.

Rosauer said Pine Street Group isn’t a real estate developer but a consultancy that helps owners build.

“We want to be a part of building downtowns,” Rosauer said. “Our goal is to help build communities.”

Lund said there are likely four possible results from the feasibility study: a new sports or athletic facility, a Boise Centre expansion, a sister facility for the convention center, or that the city is not ready for anything yet.

Growing opportunities for visitors of Idaho’s largest city

Community members and developers in Boise have long hoped for a new sports stadium, whether that be for baseball or soccer.

There were attempts to build a stadium in Boise’s West End at the site of the former Kmart store and parking lot on Americana Boulevard and Shoreline Drive. Then there were plans to build a baseball stadium for the Boise Hawks at the Expo Idaho grounds in Garden City. Both failed.

There have also been renewed efforts in the last month to attract a soccer team to Expo Idaho. The Ada County Commission gave the green light to put a roughly 30-acre piece of Expo Idaho land up for a 30-year lease, Statesman reported. A lease and development agreement for a soccer club or sports complex could be ready by the end of 2024, according to Ada County Chief Operating Officer Steve Rutherford.

“There’s a few developers and community members who want to see more programming for sports,” Lund said. “There continues to be ongoing efforts to see if there’s anything.”

One of the more promising signs for this is that demand for hotels falls on weekends, Lund said, and one of the top drivers of weekend occupancy is sports tournaments.

But the No. 1 reason for lost business, Lund said, is that there’s not enough space at the convention center.

“Without more hotel rooms, more convention space is more that chicken-or-egg discussion,” Lund said.

If expanding the convention center seems like a viable option, there are several possible roadblocks — including little space around Boise Centre. It cannot expand south into the BoDo District, north into the popular 8th Street corridor, or east into the Basque Block.

“Obviously downtown has walkability and features for convention-goers that are big,” Lund said. “The limited amount of land available for another location for that to exist is a big challenge.”

Building a sister facility for a convention center somewhere that has easier access to parking would also help with downtown space, Lund said.

“This is still very much in the early stages,” he said. “We’re looking for more data.”

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