Some South Boise residents now have a chance at a small room with an expansive view.
A shuttered, 1980s-era Howard Johnson Motor Lodge at 8002 W. Overland Road has been transformed into The Prospect, a newly-renovated apartment complex just off Interstate 84 that offers units that are of an extremely efficient size. The five-building property faces a Walmart-anchored shopping center to its south, but has an unobscured view of the foothills of the Boise Mountains to the north and east.
The smallest apartments on offer at The Prospect cover 193 square feet and cost $1,045 a month, according to its website. A potential resident could size up slightly to the Urban 1XA, a 242-square-foot apartment that runs about $1,095 a month, or the Urban 1XB, a 276-square-foot apartment that costs $1,295 per month.
Development plans on file with the city of Boise indicate that The Prospect would have 89 flats total: 24 units of the most petite size and 32 of each of the larger varieties, and a single one-bedroom, one-bath unit with over 800 square feet that was previously the hotel manager's private apartment.
If most of the above sounds like a tight fit, that's because it is, by any measure. The national planning and real estate trade group, the Urban Land Institute, said in a 2013 report on the rise of micro apartments that the definition of the phrase was somewhat dependent on context, though generally speaking the term referred to an apartment of 300 square feet or less and typically rents are 20% to 30% lower than what one would pay for a conventional unit.
The team behind The Prospect said it was motivated by a desire to create new housing in Boise, where the total population grew 7.8% from 2020 to 2022, while minimizing the environmental impact. The developer, Beaverton, Oregon-based Fortify Holdings, tapped a local architect, Erik Hagen, specifically because of his background in sustainable and eco-friendly design. By converting the former hotel, the team reused an existing structure, which limited the consumption of extra construction resources. The building was also outfitted with green fixtures, proper trash and recycling receptacles and bike parking.
The successful conversion project has been selected by a panel of local industry professionals as the winner of the 2023 CoStar Impact Awards for redevelopment of the year for Boise.
About the project: The Prospect is a collection of five two-story buildings at 8002 W. Overland Road in Boise. The property was initially constructed as an 88-room roadside inn in the 1980s. It was converted into apartments over the course of 2022.
What the judges said: "Creative and needed," said Tim Reid, first vice president at CBRE's Boise office.
They made it happen: Two companies are involved in The Prospect, Avenue5 of Seattle and Fortify Holdings of Portland, Oregon. Taysia Joelson and Sean Keys of Avenue5 were listed as participants in the project. Joelson said Fortify Holdings is the asset owner and Avenue5 manages the property.