Revitalizing Downtown, new buildings and renovations

Downtown Idaho Falls will see some new developments. The Redevelopment Agency has two new plans for the downtown area:

1. Building a hub on the old Kelsch property, and
2. Renovating the Bonneville Hotel.

The Kelsch property on Broadway and Memorial streets is “…the entryway to our downtown. To have it come back as the caliber of project that it’s going to be is really exciting for downtown,” said Brad Kramer, the community development director for the city of Idaho Falls.

The Idaho Falls Redevelopment Agency will build two buildings with retail, residential, and office space on that plot of land.

“It will include a plaza in between [the two buildings]. Public parking underground and on the surface, so we’ll roughly add 70 to 75 stalls of public parking,” Kramer said.

The tentative date for the groundbreaking of the Broadway project is Aug. 7. If everything stays on task, the Redevelopment Agency thinks it will start constructing the buildings in the fall.

The second plan is to change a historic downtown Idaho Falls staple — the Bonneville Hotel.

“Maintaining it’s historic integrity — completely renovating the building for residential units on the upper floors and some retail or restaurant space on the main floor,” Kramer said.

Partnering with a development agency out of Boise, the city hopes to completely renovate the entire building starting spring 2018.

“You’re going to see tens of thousands of dollars invested into the city with no new miles of road, sewer, water, electric, utilities to have to maintain. From that perspective, it’s really a good deal. But I think even more importantly, Downtown is the core and heart of our city and its being reinvested in, and that’s exciting,” Kramer said.