BOISE, Idaho — There was a time when the Boise Chamber and Convention officials were concerned that the Capitol City didn't have enough rooms to attract and accommodate large conventions. That is not the case anymore.
I spent the afternoon with Don Day from Boisedev to see how a once sleepy Grove Street has exploded into the new hotel corridor.
Day explains: "You could see the four hundred new hotel rooms just in this intersection."
The only thing that's sleepy on Grove Street these days will be the hundreds of guests spending the night. Four new hotel projects are in the works, two are moving dirt and the other two are on the planning table.
First on the corner of 11th and Grove a project that projects to have 271 rooms, which would be the most in any hotel in Boise. Across Grove street where the old Safari Inn once stood has been gutted for another large project. Don Day says what's old is new again.
"Instead of tearing it down, they will re-use the old property and make it a fun boutique type hotel where they will have a food truck where the pool used to be, and sixty rooms that would take this old property and bring it back to life."
A Wisconsin billionaire who bought the Owyhee Plaza which hasn't been a hotel in years, has big plans for the back lot that used to host beer fests. This project has Day intrigued.
"This is kind of interesting, it's going to have one hundred fifty rooms, rooftop bar, restaurant on the ground floor, they're trying to give this a historic feel, lot's of brick, They are the same people who opened the warehouse food hall in BoDo."
