Idaho Falls downtown development on the rise

Things are changing in downtown Idaho Falls. Take a walk down any street and you’ll see many buildings under construction or renovation. One of the biggest areas is the Broadway Development site. Once completed, it will be retail and commercial business space. It will also provide more parking for downtown.

“So, it’s our, kind of first, public underground parking garage,” Catherine Smith with Idaho Falls Downtown Development, said. “Some of the other buildings do have underground parking garages, but those are for employees and what not. But this will be public underground parking. So we’ll have 49 new spaces there. We’ll also have about 18 surface spaces that will become available.”

That’s not the only big project happening downtown. Work to restore the Bonneville start this Fall. It will become housing and retail space.

“The historic importance of that building is going to be brought to life,” said Smith. “So, all of the windows that are now currently boarded up or there’s actually tiles over them, will be unveiled and I mean it’s just, it’s going to be incredible.”

There are several privately owned buildings being renovated as well. They are expected to bring even more exciting things to the area. Smith attributes the downtown success to more than 20 years of hard work.

“It’s years and years of hard work, of people kind of bringing the momentum to how downtown kind of gets to this point,” she said. “I think that we’re on the cusp of an explosion. Everything I hear is positive . All the energy down here is positive. We’re going to see a lot of growth and a lot of interest. And it really is the heart of our city.”

There are several downtown events coming up. This Saturday, March 17th, there is a St. Patrick’s Day celebration from 5 pm to 9 pm on the 300 block of Park Avenue. On March 31st, kids can find the Easter Bunny from noon to 3 pm. Kids can look for hidden bunnies in shops downtown. Once they’ve found all of the bunnies, they can go to Weebee Toys to get a prize and meet the Easter Bunny.