Indian Creek dedication only a beginning

With Indian Creek restored, downtown Caldwell is ready to lure developers back.

At the ribbon-cutting dedication ceremony, the city announced a package of incentives that included a 60-percent cost-share program for downtown streetscape improvements, such as street lighting, benches, irrigation and trees; a $500,000 transportation grant; a downtown-wide Wi-Fi system; and a police bike patrol rotation to help downtown-goers feel safer.
City officials are also pushing for a cut in permit costs for energy-efficient buildings in the downtown area. Already every new building built by the city must be LEED certified, and others are encouraged to build to meet those standard.
All these changes aim to lure developers into a downtown that will be in keeping with new urbanist design elements: mixed-use buildings, sustainability, pedestrian connectivity, gathering places, entertainment, and distinctive architecture.
Caldwell’s redevelopment director Dennis Cannon said, “Now we just have to provide more entertainment, more things to do, to bring them back.”
A roadblock to Caldwell’s plans has been FEMA’s concerns over flood dangers. Cannon said opening the creek, increased the capacity by more than 50 percent. And now the city is plugging in Indian Creek’s downtown values into FEMA’s own model in order to make it as easy as possible for FEMA to respond promptly to the new flood danger calculations.
Oppenheimer Development Corporation President Skip Oppenheimer said the project has been two fold. First, follow through construction of mixed-use buildings for retail outlets, offices, restaurants, city hall, a civic auditorium, and other purposes. Second, work with other developers and investors to invigorate downtown.
“We have various goals,” Oppenheimer said. “We want to help promote the revitalization of historical buildings as well as to incorporate some aesthetically very innovative and positive designs using the fabulous Indian Creek as an important part of the downtown to create a very attractive urban center.”
With these goals, Oppenheimer said he hopes to help turn downtown Caldwell into one of the most striking city centers in the West.
“One of the key reasons that we became interested in the Caldwell downtown was the Indian Creek project,” Oppenheimer said. “I think we pictured it being enormously attractive and important – it adds a very distinctive quality to downtown Caldwell. Very few cities have that to offer.”
Downtown business owners agree.
Betty Denson, who has been the bookkeeper at Rostock Furniture & Appliance on Kimball Street for 40 years, said the creek is gorgeous, and she can see downtown’s potential already.
“I think it’s going to be really nice once it’s completely finished,” she said. “And I think it will probably bring some people into town that will come into the stores.”
Dale Peterson, executive director of Boise’s Buy Idaho, has lived in Caldwell for 50 years. He lived in Caldwell while it was the retail hub of western Idaho and eastern Oregon, then watched as retailers deserted the city in the 1970s and 80s. He and his wife attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony and were highly impressed.
“Now we have an anchor to entice retail trade to come back to a beautiful setting,” Peterson said. “The future should be extremely bright for the Caldwell market.”
 

Info Box
At 7pm on May 29, Oppenheimer Development will hold a public meeting at the Center for the Arts in downtown Caldwell seeking feedback on the next set of concept plans.
Contact Denny Cannon at (208) 455-4736 or Oppenheimer Development at (208) 343-4883 with any questions regarding Caldwell’s development plans.