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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

parking Might as well, Jump

Posted by Nathaniel Hoffman on Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:26 PM

In writing this week's news feature on Jack's Urban Meeting Place, we went for a little lap around the Simplot site, bounded by Front and Myrtle streets on the north and south and Ninth and Eleventh to the east and west.

The four-block area is somewhat trapezoidal, or, as JUMP architect Susan Desko called it, "kind of like a piano ... Driving down Myrtle, you get this really dynamic kind of curve ahead of you."

We found a few surprises on the site. First of all, there is a Borah Street. The continuation of Broad Street (which runs through BoDo) is called Borah. There is currently access to surface parking via Borah Street, but citydesk hears that the Simplots are requesting that Borah and the alley that comes onto the property from Myrtle be abandoned to accommodate their plans for the site.

Also within the future JUMP (what do ya'll think we should call this? JUMP feels silly... like BoDo...) there is a network of railroad spurs that once served the downtown warehouse district. There are photos of all this stuff in the slide show below.

The Emerald Club and Knock 'em Dead Dinner Theater are slated for demolition in this project, but Breck Seiniger, Jr., the attorney who owns the law firm on the corner of Myrtle and Ninth, refused to sell his corner to the Simplot family.

"They made us an offer that wee didn't think was reasonable and we made them an offer that they didn't think was reasonable," Seiniger said.

When JUMP is built, if indeed it excludes commercial activity, Seiniger is thinking his corner might be prime real estate for some commercial activity... a Starbucks, perhaps?

And here is a little bonus treat. It is not super clear, but for a sneak peak of the landscape plan for JUMP, check out the future Web site for the project... look closely behind the little jumping girl...

Tags: Simplot, JUMP, Video

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Friday, August 22, 2008

parking / state Guv gets street parking

Posted by Nathaniel Hoffman on Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 1:00 PM

No more hitching his State Police suburban to the hitching post next to the Borah Building. Or, parking on the sidewalk, which would be a more accurate way to say that. The ISP truck that is assigned to Gov. Butch Otter now has a spot of its own.

click to enlarge

The City of Boise has dedicated two spots on 8th Street to ISP for the governor's security detail. No one is parked there today because Otter is in Sun Valley golfing. It's for a good cause, the Danny Thompson Memorial Golf Tournament. And hey, it's a golf tourney in Sun Valley with heavy corporate sponsorship, so it's a great opportunity to press the flesh.

In case you missed it, Otter had been parked (it's not his car, it's a state police rig) on the sidewalk since the Legislature kicked him out of his offices in the State Capitol for two years. Idaho State Police told BW that the spot on the wide sidewalk near the backdoor was a security precaution, recommended by none other than the Secret Service.

But the city complained (and got complaints) and an awkward back and forth between the state and the city ensued, for, like a year. Now everyone is friends again and in about a year Otter will get his driveway across the street back.

ISP has also requested a street spot at the Supreme Court building.

Tags: citydesk