Business
Land Board To Get Out Of Business
June 16, 2015 
Five years after the GUARDIAN first broke the story of the Idaho Land Board going into the business of running businesses, the Board has voted to divest itself of more than 20 commercial real estate parcels, most of them in downtown Boise. The big story back then was a STORAGE business.
The poster child property which was vigorously defended by land board members is Ten Barrel Brewing. The state spent millions in “tenant improvements,” even hiring a construction manager. The place is owned today by Budweiser.
For five years state officials claimed they had a “constitutional mandate” to get the best return on the education endowment funds and in their collective mind that meant owning tax-exempt property in Boise. Now, based on the advice of a consultant they will divest themselves of an estimated $25 million worth of commercial property and put cash into what sounds like Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT). We applaud the vote of the board which is long overdue.
The board is comprised of state elected officers (guv, controller, sec/state, atty/gen, sup/intstruc).
The only worry for citizens of Boise is the location of the various parcels. While the state owns them, there is no revenue generated from the tax-exempt property. However, if any of the real estate is within an urban renewal district the taxes on improvements and appreciation will go to CCDC, not the city of Boise.
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Comments & Discussion
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Jun 16, 2015, 10:49 pm
$ 25 million added to the local property tax rolls is not chicken feed. Will help pay for police, fire and school district expenses. New owners will have to pay income tax also. I salute the Land board for this decision. It is long overdue and my Thanks to you Dave for covering this story for several years.
Jun 17, 2015, 3:59 pm
Now they are getting out of the commercial real estate and cottage site leasing, they can return to their roots- logging and grazing. Of course those industries are not what they once were because of environmental movement.