Another big apartment complex planned for Boise’s West End. What about Rudy the Rooster?
The wave of redevelopment once predicted for Boise’s West End is taking hold.
St. Louis-based developer Subtext wants to build more housing in Boise. The company’s latest proposal is for a 272-apartment building at 2600 W. Fairview Ave. in the West End, at the northeast corner of West Fairview Avenue and North 27th Street.
The seven-story building called Local Boise Fairview would be just west of Capri Restaurant. A rendering of the proposed building includes a depiction of Rudy the Rooster, who has sat above a sign for Capri Restaurant since 2016. Capri Restaurant is planned to remain in place.
The project is expected to cost $81 million, with construction beginning in spring 2023 and completed by summer 2025, according to the Capital City Development Corp., Boise’s urban renewal agency.
“We’re excited to see this trend continue in this area to provide more housing,” Capital City Development Corp. Project Manager Kevin Holmes said at a commissioners’ board meeting earlier this month.
In a letter to the city of Boise, The Land Group Director of Client Services Tamara Thompson described the project as having commercial space, residential units, and a two-story parking garage. There would be a gym, club room, coworking space, coffee bar, game room, rooftop terrace, a second-floor courtyard with a swimming pool, hot tub, barbecue stations, fire pits and covered cabanas.
Apartments would include studios, one-, two- and three-bedrooms. Subtext developer Richard Sexauer, who is listed as the project’s applicant, declined to say how much rent would cost.
Subtext also built the Local Boise apartment building at 250 E. Myrtle St. near WinCo and Whole Foods downtown, and the Verve Boise apartments at 2001 W. Boise Ave. near Boise State University.
Rents at Local Boise are listed online starting at $1,390 per month for a studio and $1,650 per month for a one-bedroom. Two-bedroom apartments range from $1,965 per month to $2,535.
Subtext is applying for a building permit at the Fairview location. On the site, for now, is an Enterprise Rent-A-Car and the Budget Inn.
To the west of the most recent proposal is the site of The Avens, at 2742 W. Fairview Ave., where Boise development company Roundhouse is preparing to build 187 apartments. When that building was being planned, Roundhouse CEO Casey Lynch said he thought it could be part of a “wave of redevelopment.”
Kitty-corner from the Local Boise Fairview is the site of a proposed seven-story apartment building at 2850 W. Fletcher Drive. Those apartments, named the 27th & Fairview Apartments project, were proposed in January 2021.
According to a letter submitted to the city, 27th & Fairview would have two seven-story apartment buildings and a four-story office building. It would have ground floor retail, a parking garage on the first two floors of the apartment buildings and 358 total apartments.
A third apartment building has been proposed directly southeast of that. The Fletcher is a proposed seven-story building with 169 apartments atop two levels of parking and retail space at 2801 Fletcher St., the site of the Symposion bar.
The Local Boise Fairview faces the St. Luke’s hospital on the south side of West Fairview Avenue, which remains under construction. Adare Manor, a building with 134 affordable apartments built in 2019, is east of the site.
The College of Western Idaho owns a chunk of nearby vacant land at 3150 W. Main St. on the northwest corner of West Main Street and North Whitewater Park Boulevard. The college envisioned a three-building campus there in 2016, but the land has remained empty.
Subtext is receiving $1.2 million from Capital City Development Corp. to improve streetscapes, like sidewalks, and utilities in the area.
“This is going to be a huge improvement for pedestrians on this corner,” Holmes said.
