The Idaho Legislature enacted the Urban Renewal Law in 1965. On August 23 of that year, the Boise City Council and Mayor Eugene Shellworth created the Boise Redevelopment Agency (BRA). The agency was established to carry out redevelopment in downtown Boise using the federal urban renewal program. At the time, $16.8 million in federal funds was available to Boise during this period.
A downtown development guide adopted by the City Council in 1964 recommended urban renewal, land clearance, and redevelopment. According to a 1985 downtown study prepared for the BRA, the agency’s activities from 1965 through June 1969 included surveys, planning, property acquisition, and clearance. The study said the agency identified areas for a regional shopping center as well as sites for individual projects.
The proposed regional shopping center was the largest element of the BRA’s plans in a 1968 proposal encompassing 15 downtown blocks, two blocks south of the State Capitol. A 1970 proposal called for an enclosed shopping mall across eight blocks and removal of much of the existing street grid. Later plans continued to focus on an eight-block area between Capitol Boulevard and Ninth Street and between Bannock and Grove streets. These were proposals; the downtown regional mall was never constructed.
The BRA acquired and cleared property while pursuing redevelopment. In July 1969, the agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development entered into a loan and grant contract covering several downtown blocks. They signed a second agreement for additional blocks in June 1971. A 1982 federal appeals court decision states that portions of the project site were cleared between 1972 and 1978 without construction on those portions during that period.
Some property acquired or cleared through the BRA’s work was put to new use. These included One Capital Center, completed in 1975; Boise City Hall, completed in 1977; the Grove Street Garage (now 10th & Front Garage), built in 1978; the Idaho First National Bank building (now U.S. Bank Tower) and Statehouse Inn (now Hotel 43), completed in 1979; and the Ada County Administration Building, completed in 1980. The timeline describes BRA’s role in acquiring land and preparing sites for several of these projects.
Other cleared areas remained awaiting the proposed shopping center. The 1985 downtown study reported that, within its 11-block area of analysis, the equivalent of three blocks had been redeveloped for public and private uses. It described the remaining blocks as undeveloped and noted that the shopping-center component had not been carried out.
Urban renewal also changed downtown places that had existed before the BRA’s projects. The City of Boise’s account of its Chinese history states that much of Boise’s second Chinatown was demolished in the early 1970s for urban renewal and that most remaining Chinese-owned businesses moved out of the downtown core. Its oral-history material includes an account of a resident who remained in a Chinatown building until shortly before demolition.
Buildings elsewhere in the proposed mall area faced possible demolition or substantial alteration. A 1982 federal appeals court decision records that seven buildings within the project were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and that the Eastman Building was listed in 1978. A group known as The Preservation Coalition challenged aspects of the project under federal environmental and historic-preservation laws. The appeals court ruled that the circumstances did not require a new environmental impact statement when project funding was converted in 1979; it did not decide the historic-preservation issues raised by an amicus brief on appeal.
A history of the mall proposals published by CCDC identifies the Union Block, Alexander Building, Idaho Building, McCarty Building, and Fidelity Building among structures that proposed downtown mall developments would have removed. Those proposals did not proceed. Preservation Idaho states that its predecessor, the Idaho Historic Preservation Council, was formed in 1972 by residents concerned about the demolition of historic buildings.
The BRA continued seeking a developer and retailer commitments for the regional shopping center. Its 1985 downtown study reported that five major developers had attempted to carry out that part of the plan. According to the study, major retail stores either declined to participate in a downtown mall or made their participation conditional without committing to the project. The study also reported growth in suburban shopping centers during the period. Its transportation analysis stated that major retailers favored suburban locations offering larger sites, free surface parking, and direct highway access.
In 1979, the BRA converted funding for the downtown project from federal urban renewal loans and grants to Community Development Block Grant funds through an agreement with HUD. By 1985, the BRA had changed its downtown development policy. Its board adopted a direction calling for a wide mix of uses in the eight-block area and commissioned a Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team study to help guide further development. The study, organized by the American Institute of Architects, was presented to the BRA and other key leaders in October of 1985. It described goals that included a mix of uses, public spaces, a walkable downtown, historic buildings, arts and culture, and multiple transportation options.
With a new plan and a new approach being considered, the city also elected a new mayor who preferred a different direction that emphasized what the R/UDAT study, and many private sector leaders, recommended. Mayor Dirk Kempthorne took office in 1986. The Idaho legislature created the new local revenue allocation financing tool for cities in 1987, and the Central District was established with local revenue allocation financing that same year.
In March of 1989 the Boise City Council decided that the Urban Renewal Agency of Boise City would no longer operate under the name Boise Redevelopment Agency. The new name, Capital City Development Corporation, continues to this day.