Boise’s Design Review Committee will examine at a public hearing tonight revised plans for the Whole Foods project on Broadway Avenue between Front and Myrtle streets. The developers, Texas-based Schlosser Development and landowner Jim Kissler, have submitted plans that scale back the hotel and condominium tower adjacent to the grocery store.
The tower was originally planned to be 17 stories and include 56 condos. It is now designed as seven stories, with 34 condo units. The hotel would have 119 rooms.
Committee staff raised several concerns about the latest plans, such as the placement of the buildings on site, in a recent report. The report says that because of the location and orientation of the buildings, the project “turns its back onto the downtown.”
The staff suggests relocating each of the buildings along Broadway and extending Broad Street as a circulation path for vehicles or as a pedestrian walkway. The report also notes the buildings could be pulled apart to create a plaza-like space.
Other concerns include lighting, the location of a curb cut on Front Street and the use of stucco as a building material.
However, the staff recommends that the committee approve the project with some conditions.
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