Business
City, Simplot Can’t Agree On New Building
December 4, 2009 
A proposal for an agricultural museum and new offices for the J. R. Simplot Company to be built by the family foundation for about $100 million in downtown Boise is apparently on hold.
Simplot and City officials have been meeting to hash out designs issues after the city declared the initial Simplot idea was not to their liking.
Poet Paul sees it this way:
On land that looks like a sty
Family plans the council won’t buy
With the economy in a slump
When the Simplots say JUMP
The mayor should ask “how high”?
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Comments & Discussion
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© 2009 Boise Guardian. 
Dec 4, 2009, 12:40 pm
Well duh… the Simplot plan doesn’t include the required trolley station! 😉
Dec 4, 2009, 1:07 pm
Typical for Boise politicians, no kickbacks in it for THEM so they are going to be difficult about it.
Dec 5, 2009, 9:14 am
Free somthimes comes with lots of attachments. Anyone know what that might be?
Dec 5, 2009, 12:14 pm
I am convinced that Boise is being run by a much of morons.
Dec 5, 2009, 2:13 pm
Perhaps the names of government leaders are not going to be plastered all over the entrance as if they had personally built it with their labor and money
Dec 5, 2009, 4:18 pm
Bizarre. I heard that at least one planner from out of state with no axe to grind describe the designs as ‘profoundly flawed’. But more astonishing is the notion that JR Simplot Co. should be allowed to build or do anything they want. For a site that used to regularly question unplanned and unchecked growth, it now seems to be devolving into just anti-Bieter.
Dec 5, 2009, 10:35 pm
For a city who approves gross looking buildings this is insane! I bet they are going to require Simplot to make the building BROWN too. The goof balls that allowed the condo building across from the convention center and the Grove Hotel are likely behind this too.
All we need is another gross looking building in downtown Boise. The Design Review Committee and the city should get out of the way and let Simplot build what they like – JR deserves better than to have Team Dave dictate how the complex looks!
Dec 7, 2009, 4:47 pm
So, sounds like the folks here think another Grove Hotel would be just fine. The Grove Hotel is an S-16 project and looks nothing like what they told the city it would look like. It is a mish-mash of cheap shortcuts to maximize square footage. One of the most ugly buildings designed in recent time. Why should the city bend over for Simplot?
I agree with you SYS. I don’t read this blog much anymore ahe anti-mayor Pavlovian drool is pathetic.