BOISE, Idaho — You may not know it by looking at all the building cranes downtown, or watching the dozens of trucks hauling dirt, rock, and concrete, but things are moving around in the Treasure Valley. COVID-19 is here and it's not going away anytime soon, but Idaho's growth continues to plow forward.
Don Day from BoiseDev has an interesting perspective. "Sometimes economic downturns are like forest fires, they sweep in make lots of change but new things can grow. So we'll see what happens; it'll be very interesting over the next few months," said Day.
For instance, there's a Boise restaurant that's turning in their forks for wine screws. Day explains, "Candles Crossing in the north end in Hyde Park, well, they're going to close that business and instead convert it to a wine shop. They just said it's not safe to run a restaurant business."
There's still a strong demand for residential, homes of all sizes and shapes. "As you know, having covered this at Idaho News 6 and us at BoiseDev, we need a lot more housing units. The money is still available, and developers are moving forward with those projects," said Day. Large commercial projects are moving forward as well. One that caught Don Day's eye is the Eagle View Landing Project on Eagle Road near the freeway. It will feature a Top Golf style entertainment center. "That's still winding its way through and there's a lot going on, and just because we are where we are in uncertain times, it doesn't mean we're going to stop seeing an end to this activity."
And Don Day says don't get too caught up in the recent petition drive to try and recall Boise Mayor Lauren McLean. When it comes to our growth, business is business. " I taped a podcast with her last week than you can find on BoiseDev and we talked about her economic recovery efforts, so I don't know if that's going to change. I think most businesses look at politics as a small factor but political leaders change all the time."
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