The BoiseDev team is off for the holiday break. (We’ll keep an eye out for any major breaking stories.) While our team enjoys some downtime, we bring you a few stories you might have missed this year. A note that some stories may have new updates since the original date of publication. Have something we should know? Email us.
Two new sports stadiums, one for professional soccer and the other for baseball, could be coming to Garden City.
On Wednesday, the Ada County Commissioners took two steps toward upgrading and building new sports facilities on the more than 200-acre Expo Idaho site. This included the auction of 27 acres of the housing the shuttered Turf Club and the closed Les Bois horse racing track to an entity called Expo Sports and Entertainment to build a soccer stadium for both professional men and women’s teams. Behind the project is developer David Wali, Boise Pro Soccer CEO Brad Stith and Bill Taylor, the former vice president of U.S. Soccer.
Later in the afternoon, the commissioners met with Georgia-based developer Chris Schoen and representatives from the Boise Hawks to give the green light on exploring the possibility of creating an urban renewal district on the fairgrounds and other nearby property to develop a new stadium for the Boise Hawks. This proposal would also include mixed-use development surrounding the stadium, like housing, commercial development, shopping and restaurants.
Both proposals are in the early stages of discussions and there are no formal agreements yet with specific plans or revenue-sharing agreements in place.
These early talks of two new sports stadiums on the Expo Idaho site come as the county is in the bidding process to redevelop 50 acres of the riverside site into a park funded by American Rescue Plan Act funds from the federal government. The site for the Western Idaho Fair is still remaining in its current location in all of the county’s current plans but with the two new stadiums and the park site developed around them.
It’s no secret the Boise Hawks stadium is aging.
The team’s ownership, and developer Schoen, have been pushing to build a new stadium for the Hawks for years. Initially, the team wanted to partner with the City of Boise and Capitol City Development Corporation to put a new Hawk’s nest in downtown Boise with a mixed-use development site around it. This plan failed after former mayor Dave Bieter left office and a ballot initiative requiring a vote to approve funds for a baseball stadium passed in 2019.
The project went dormant for a while until 2021 when Schoen and the Hawks began informal talks with the Ada County Commissioners about a vision for a new stadium on the Expo Idaho site as the county was beginning the planning process to redevelop the site. Schoen and Hawks representative Jerry Sorenson met again with the Ada County Commissioners in July about a new stadium in the area near the current facility.
From there, the Schoen and the Hawks approached the Garden City urban renewal agency about creating a district encompassing part of the fairgrounds and some surrounding property. Ryan Armbruster, the urban renewal agency’s lawyer, told the Ada County Commissioners the agency unanimously voted to move ahead with exploring the idea of a new district and the Garden City City Council approved funds to begin the exploratory process.
Establishing a district will require a feasibility study done by a consultant to examine the nearby area and identify which parcels are included. It will also require extensive talks between the Garden City urban renewal agency, Ada County and the City of Garden City to develop an inter-governmental agreement to structure the deal. Another question would be if the district can happen without annexing the property into Ada County, or if it would be required to go into city limits.
An urban renewal district provides a key funding mechanism for making a stadium viable to build for two reasons. First, the tax increment funds going to the district would provide funding for infrastructure improvements to support the project as the area develops. Urban renewal districts can also take on debt in Idaho without voter approval, so the district could be used as a funding mechanism to build the stadium that is repaid later over the course of the district’s two-decade lifespan.
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These initial negotiations between all three parties could take between 60 and 90 days or longer. It would then be a longer process to develop an urban renewal plan with a more specific for the site.
“We’re cognizant of the importance of the project and the need for public outreach along the way and we need to make sure we do this right and we don’t have our foot on the gas so fast that we create issues,” Armbruster said.
Garden City Mayor John Evans said this idea is still in the “exploratory phase” and would have to meet several conditions to have it be viable for Garden City to sign off on.
“If you have the stadium is one thing, the other development is something else and you have to work out who is going to service it and who is best suited to service it,” he said. “If it makes sense that the city is going to service it then that’s sewer, water, police, and North Ada Fire and Rescue is the fire provider, so then how are we going to fund that? If it’s in the city limits you have property tax and if it’s not, there might be some other mechanism. Those are all just questions.”
Pro soccer could kick off in Boise
The initial plans Schoen had for a new stadium in Boise in 2018 and 2019 included a dual-use stadium to house both the Boise Hawks and a professional soccer team.
This new vision for the area would keep the Hawks stadium only for baseball and professional soccer would be part of a separate development on the 27 acres where the now-shuttered Les Bois horse racing track is housed. The Ada County Commissioners voted unanimously on Wednesday morning to award a 30-year lease to Expo Sports and Entertainment. The entity was the only bidder in the auction and bid $150,000 to gain rights to the lease.
The group owns the rights to two United Soccer League franchises, contingent on executing this lease with Ada County. This includes the rights to a division three men’s team and a division one women’s team. The men’s team would be in the United Soccer League One and the women’s team would be a USL Super League, which is different than the National Women’s Soccer League.
Commission Chair Rod Beck called this process “just the beginning” and said the county will now spend the next 90 days negotiating terms of the development agreement for the property with the successful bidder. This project will not be confirmed until the end of this period and the deals are signed
Wali, a developer with Gardner Company behind projects like the redevelopment of the Riverside Hotel and Hotel 43, said he has experience building new development, as well as refurbishing older sites into new and exciting projects.
“We see great value out here for the county by taking the Turf Club and reimagining it back to the days where food and beverage was a big part of it,” he said. “…This is truly a special place and with time, energy and money we can turn it into a great asset for us as well as the county.”
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