Business
Sky Is The Limit For “Ludwig Tower”
December 16, 2020 
We don’t have a TRUMP TOWER in Boise, but if things go right for a former City Councilor we could have a “LUDWIG TOWER”.
Scot Ludwig, the former city councilor and CCDC member, is proposing to build a tall building in Idaho at 5th and Broad Streets. If approved, it could be 19 stories tall and at 235 feet a standout on the Boise skyline.
The price will be “upscale” at around $600 per square foot.
BOISE DEV has the official details of Ludwig’s proposal.
Here’s what the proposal calls for:
–44 condominium units, with most around 2,000 square feet. The top floor would feature two-story penthouse units.
–An elevator parking system. The building would include space for 192 cars, which would serve tenants in the building, as well as a building Ludwig partially owns next door. More on this below.
–An indoor/outdoor amenity level with yoga studio, fitness center, outdoor terrace and rentable guest suites.
–A series of four live/work units along the ground and second floors, facing 5th St.
–An exterior “cascading steps” feature would connect the 7th-floor amenity deck to a series of outdoor terraces above the live-work units.
The GUARDIAN has taken the liberty of offering a different view of the project than what the Planning and Zoning department will see and hear.
—Marketing slogan: “Luxury living for those who look down on their neighbors.”
—A Rubic Cube mechanical parking garage. We have remote meetings, robotic bank tellers, drones for everything from photography to SWAT shotguns, so why not mechanical garages for luxury cars. No doubt electric models will get special treatment. We envision onthly “rewards” if you can retrieve your vehicle in under 10 minutes. No pick ups allowed.
—Target market will be rich people willing to pony up $600 a sqft to view rooftops and endless urban sprawl.
—Tenants will be bankers, lawyers, and investors from the likes of Chicago, New York, and Miami who are tired of looking at Lake Michigan, the Statue of Liberty, and palm-lined Florida beaches. “Tiffany, if we are going to live in a city, let’s make it Boise!”
—Affordable housing” units are a MUST these days. They should sell for a mere $300 per sqft. Sort of like putting mobile homes on Warm Springs and skinny houses on the Harrison Blvd. median to show compassion.
—Barristas selling foo-foo latte drinks will have a chance to live on the lower floors above the garage and walk to work down two flights of stairs. They will have to make $50 per hour and coffee will be $20 a cup.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Dec 16, 2020, 6:09 pm
Thanks for the humor, Dave! Seems to be the only way to survive the onslaught of development blight to our city.
The balconies sound like an extra special feature designed to maximize the killing of birds: “Building renderings show a series of high-end finishes, with balconies on each of the residential levels with glass railings and wood finishes”. Glass balconies? How awful.
I wonder what neighboring buildings or businesses will no longer have any winter sun because of this monstrosity? It would also be very interesting to know the real world, not the spun, occupancy rate for all the blobby buildings being built in Boise. How much already built space is actually being used vs.being horse-traded by Wall Street speculators, foreign investors, Blackstone types, etc.
Dec 16, 2020, 6:33 pm
It’s become exceedingly tedious, living in Boise and having to look at those damned foothills every day. Glad we’re doing our level-best to try and mask what we were once told was Boise’s greatest asset, with the two “Ludwig Towers” projects and the proposed new “Tommy Towers” project down by St. Luke’s. With any luck, we’ll have that iconic, but annoying “Boise panorama” obscured in no time.
Dec 16, 2020, 7:00 pm
Dave, Your narrow minded arrogance is showing. I don’t know the developer, the but market will either support such a project…or not. Your mentality is little and narrow minded.
Dec 16, 2020, 8:59 pm
Whose money is he spending?
Dec 17, 2020, 10:00 am
I much prefer high density downtown development over converting farm land to suburban sprawl. I say build it.
Dec 17, 2020, 10:40 am
Quite jarring to see the lamentation of urban sprawl and a dense housing project in a single rant, Dave.
I for one hope to purchase two or three of these units.
Dec 17, 2020, 10:55 am
Scot is a year or two behind the curve with this proposal. The tide went out on the apartment/condo bubble with the pandemic earlier this year. Maybe I don’t get it, but why would anyone with money to waste spend $600/ft2 when they could go a few blocks north and overpay at $300-400/ft2 for a detached house in the North End. Looking back at history, real estate “investors” should start to feel a little bit queasy; skyscrapers popped up like weeds immediately prior to the start of the Great Depression in 1929, the Empire State building probably being the most well known example. Right now the world is filled with airbox projects that have failed to pan out like the developers expected.
Dec 17, 2020, 11:19 am
Greg, the proof of the theory that “the market will either support such a project … or not” can be found in the recent “JUMP” project in downtown Boise … an overly-ambitious, in-your-face, arrogant modernist architectural statement that committed several blocks of downtown Boise to what was breathlessly pitched as “Boise’s latest vibrant urban meeting place” but that continues to languish as a largely forlorn, empty, and underutilized space. Boiseans still can’t figure out what “JUMP” is — or was intended to be — but they do understand that such a massive commitment of our downtown core really hasn’t delivered up to its potential. I think that’s why a growing number of Boiseans grew skeptical last year of the proposed $104 million events center/library, that was more a visionary dream of politicians and developers than a realistic assessment of need to serve the larger common good. Yes, the “market” does indeed render a judgment on boastful visions … but can our city really afford such visionary gambles when there are much more tangible civic needs and issues to tackle? And, insofar as “not knowing” the developer of the latest ritzy Boise skyscraper proposal that’s being floated (jeepers, Idaho’s tallest) you apparently haven’t been paying attention. The litany of recusals and conflicts-of-interest on the part of a “developer-turned-City-Council-member-turned-developer” is a matter of established public record over the past four years. Planning in Boise should be a matter of more than just who’s got the most money and politick influence.
Dec 17, 2020, 12:57 pm
Haha, this article is hilarious. Good luck to Scott, it’ll be interesting to see this go up, if it is approved. I wonder how long it’ll take for the parking elevator to break, leaving someone’s G-Wagon stuck on 4th floor for a week.
In seriousness, though – it’s amazing to me how much collective PTSD Boise has over one tower proposal that ended up an empty hole for a decade. This is downtown – if you cannot build a tower here, where can you? It’s entirely appropriate.
David Klinger: comparing this to JUMP or the Library proposal is totally incoherent – JUMP is not housing, and the Library is/would have been publicly funded. This project is neither – it doesn’t cost taxpayers anything, it will provide tax dollars if successful.
EDITOR NOTE–Ludwig estimates about $1 million a year in tax revenue, but until the River St.-Myrtle district is dissolved, all the tax revenue on the improvements and appreciation will go to the CCDC, not the city, county, schools, or ACHD.
Dec 17, 2020, 4:51 pm
Thought I heard Ludwig sold this to an investment group. They can afford to sit on empty housing stock.
Dec 17, 2020, 10:29 pm
I find it comical we are worried about a new “Tower” in Boise. We seem to forget a high rise proposed long ago in Boise. If you recall another “Developer”, Rick Peterson, from the state of Washington was proposing to build a similar building on the “Hole in The Ground”, now the Zion Bank building. Do you remember?
I do….He was my client at that time. Oh, do you remember another developer by the name of Gary Christensen (9th & Idaho / Banner Bank)? He wanted to purchase that same site…..
Memories… I have many
Dec 18, 2020, 12:40 pm
“The London” is a lame name for any building in Boise.
$600 x 2,000 = 1.2Mill There are many residences in Boise over the million price tag.
But these will award excellent goose hunting, right on their balcony (doubles as a blind). Easterners pay good money for hunting properties.
Two things I have noticed on recent downtown construction:
1- Each project totally screws traffic flow in the immediate area while being built.
2- Each project totally screws parking in the immediate area while being built.
Traffic and parking are already BAD in that area due to years of construction.
IF city PZ folks are reading (ha), construction permits should require only short-term road obstruction and a small, very limited street parking.
The project requires the building to have adequate on-site parking for future tenants- THAT concept should apply during construction also.
Instead of 100 tradespeople parking on the adjacent streets and in Julia Davis park, the developer should be required to shuttle workers/suppliers/ supplies from their own private parking. Blocking 2 lanes of Front St so Frank can park his fat asss next to the site is BS. Stop confiscating public streets to build private money makers.
The idea of, “oh well, it’s just temporary” needs to go away.
COVID is temporary too- look at the impact on businesses.
And when this monster is built, the adjacent businesses will be negatively impacted – due to parking! Maybe Ludwig should compensate them for it.
Zions building took almost 2 years.
Current bad examples
11th & Bannock.
5th and Bannock
5th/4th and Myrtle
St Luke’s (forever)
.
p.s. Abolish CCDC.
Dec 18, 2020, 2:50 pm
David Klinger: isn’t JUMP paying property taxes? Or do the monies go to CCDC? The $104 million library civic center Wouldn’t?
The concern I have is that (as I write my check for property taxes) the number of properties in the area not contributing to the taxing districts continue to grow. Examples St Lukes with their expansions and the purchase of the old MK site. The State of Idaho purchase of the HP facility and the University Key building on the Boise River, no property taxes.
Boise city ‘s purchase and expansion of FIRE stations? Leaving the ones vacated empty. Purchasing a deteriorated building blocks from vacated CITY property for a new police facility.
WE HAVE MADE IT EASY for elected public servants, at all levels of government,to make these kinds of decisions when they spend our money. AS WE KEEP VOTING THEM IN.
Dec 18, 2020, 2:53 pm
“Going up” will not prevent suburban sprawl, as Boise City has no such intention as documented in its own records.
The adopted Area of City Impact (AOI) map shows Boise’s plan to fully sprawl, via forced annexation, along the entire southern edge of the existing city limit boundary. Recent versions of this map now include a note that indicates expanding the AOI even further to the south.
The 2015 housing study shows 23,000 to 50,000 new dwelling units in just the southwest area, of which the adopted Cory Barton/CBH Syringa Valley Specific Plan (SP-03) is already under construction. Additional plans exist for the southeast area with the Conger development group.
The 2018 municipal application for Suez water includes an Affidavit from Boise’s former Planning Director, Hal Simmons, which states the following:
“SUEZ’s current certificated service area encompasses nearly the entire Area of Impact for the City. It is imperative for the City’s future that SUEZ secure water rights sufficient to supply the City’s needs at full build-out. “
Dec 18, 2020, 3:25 pm
More of that “because Hal said so” s#%t.
Dec 19, 2020, 2:36 pm
I’m still trying to figure out why anyone with that kind of money wants to live in downtown BOISE IDAHO.
Way overrated restaurants, college bars, no really decent entertainment venues, lousy parking, snarky people everywhere. Boise is still very small-town on almost every single amenity you can think of. If I was going to pay $600/sqft I would live in some other city that actually offers reasons to pay that much. Fairly upscale condos in Vegas are cheaper than that.
Dec 19, 2020, 2:45 pm
I’ve seen all the Hunger Games series already. I’m sure that Mayor Snow approves.
Apr 14, 2021, 12:55 am
Such a big project and development for the right size of a city like Boise. I’ll think, I will look forward to this if this project happens to be approved. Lol.