Dirt is moving on Downtown’s next big project: another hotel

It seems like we’ve hit a lull in large-scale construction activity, but another project is rumbling to life.

Clay Carley and the Raymond Group have teamed up for a new hotel and 600-space parking garage at the corner of 6th St. and Front St. in Downtown Boise. The block once hosted the Boise Rescue Mission building, which crews tore down more than a decade ago after 30 years as a homeless shelter.

As we previously reported, the 7-story hotel will carry the Home2 Suites by Hilton Brand. It will feature a large patio along 5th Street attached to a restaurant and bar, plus pool, meeting rooms and fitness center. The project pushes out into a former roadbed that the state abandoned as part of the Broadway-Chinden Connector project that moved Front St. slightly to the south.

The Capital City Development Corp. sold the parcel remnant to the project’s developer at a discounted rate. The urban renewal agency will fund up to $1.8 million in streetscape improvements and lease 200 spaces in the garage. It will resell those spaces to the public.