by Joe Estrella @ Idaho Statesman
October 18, 2006
Boise’s largest Downtown landlord and a national hotelier have come up with a plan that could give the city its new Downtown convention center.
Oppenheimer Development Corp. of Boise and John Q. Hammons Hotels Management LLC — whose properties include Hilton, Courtyard by Marriott and Embassy Suites — will present a proposal to the Greater Boise Auditorium District board of directors today for a hotel/convention center on a 220,000-square-foot piece of land the district owns between 11th and 13th streets.
The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the Boise Centre on The Grove.
Coonce declined to offer details about the joint venture’s proposal.
Jack Coonce, Oppenheimer Development vice president, confirmed that the two companies have created a joint venture, Hammons/Oppenheimer Associates, to explore the project.
City and local real estate experts believe a new convention center would breath life into a mostly barren stretch of former Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way between 9th and 15th, and set the stage for future downtown development.
Oppenheimer Development owns and manages 1 million square feet of real estate in Idaho and Wyoming, including two sites in Boise: the 200,000-square-foot Wells Fargo Center at 9th and Main streets, and the 220,000-square-foot One Capital Center, 720 W. Idaho St.
John Q. Hammons Hotels manages 63 hotels across the continental United States. Some of its other properties include the Mariott, Homewood Suites, Radisson, Renaissance, Residence Inn and Sheraton hotels.
Pat Rice, general manager of the Boise Centre on The Grove, said Coonce first brought up the issue a few months ago when he asked if the auditorium district “was still looking for a developer” for its proposed convention.
“Then he called me in Denver last Friday and wanted to know when they could make a presentation to the the board,” Rice said.
After two failed attempts to get voter approval for a new convention center, the auditorium district has been proceeding with a controversial plan calling for phased construction of a new facility using an additional $750,000 a year produced by a newly approved 1 percent increase in the city’s hotel room tax to 5 percent.
Rice said that whatever the plan proposed at today’s meeting, construction will have to be on the site owned by the auditorium district between 11th and 13th streets.
“That’s the only piece of land we control,” Rice said.
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