Boise's Wish for New Center Granted
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 5/14/2007
City officials in Boise, Idaho, tossed around the idea of building a new downtown convention center for close to a decade, but finally hotel developer John Q. Hammons and his partners have stepped up to the plate to do it, along with a new hotel.
The plan includes a 130,000 square foot convention center and an 11-story, 250-room Embassy Suites Hotel.
The Greater Boise (Idaho) Auditorium District will lease and manage the convention center. The hotel will be co-owned by Hammons and Boise-based Oppenheimer Development, and managed by John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts.
It has taken some time to get a new center built, with numerous obstacles along the way. Voters twice struck down bonding proposals aimed at paying for the new center.
The existing 45,000 sq. ft. facility, the Boise Center, was too small for most tradeshows, but city leaders could not agree on the right location for a new facility. The site finally chosen, five acres between 11th and 13th streets, is easily accessible to major freeways and a 10-minute drive from the airport.
The project is scheduled to break ground in spring 2008 and be completed by late 2009. The Boise Center will not be torn down, but instead used for smaller events and meetings, said Bobbie Patterson, executive director of the Boise Convention & Visitors Bureau.
