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April Arch Street Update: Re-zone, Applications and Design

January has been a great month for Arch street- lots of progress and generally, we’ve been getting good news. For one, the real estate market in Boise has been extremely competitive- our real estate team had 7 listings in January and all of them but one had multiple offers and we were able to either sell them or currently have them under contract for over the asking price. What does that have to do with the Arch Street development? It shows that the hunger and demand for housing in Boise is not waning in any way, even in the dead of winter. As a matter of fact, as of this writing, there are only 7 properties in all of Boise with at least 2 bedrooms and 1300sf that are under $400K. None of them are new and mostly are at least cosmetic fixer uppers. For the type of property and homes with are building with Arch street, we will be able to fill an absolute need in the community. With that being said, we had our neighborhood meeting last week. This is the last requirement before we submit our rezone application and typically there are some interesting conversations at these meetings, to say the least. As a matter of fact, I brought two of my kids and prepped them to pay attention to how adults handle stress, confrontations and uncomfortable questions. We are happy to report that about a dozen neighbors showed up and, while I wouldn’t go as far as to say that we received a standing ovation, the feedback was mostly positive. There were several questions about site plans, density, parking and road improvements, but the overall feeling was that this project would be an improvement to the neighborhood and definitely an improvement to the existing, overgrown and muddy lot. At the moment, we are completing our application for the rezone and finalizing the site plan and layouts of the units. We are working on creating a little more common space for each unit and maximizing the the square footage. We should have some concrete plans and be well on our way to a final plat by Spring. At the moment, this is a draft rendering of the site:

Things are moving right along here with the project on Arch street. December was busy finalizing our platting and submitting our application for rezoning. We have gone through five or six iterations for the platting of the project and the number and layouts of the units that we plan to build. As our application is submitted, we are currently at 32 units, though it is likely that we will reduce the total number by a few in order to create a little more greenspace and better functional living spaces for future residents and owners. One of the biggest changes with our current design is that we’ve added a 10 unit multifamily building, which will create several potential exit opportunities. We could possibly hold it collectively as a for-rent product and depreciate it as we collect rents or sell it to another investor. There’s a possibility of condoizing the units and selling them individually platted as well. As part of the re-zoning process, we will hold a neighborhood meeting at the end of January. All of the neighbors must be notified by mail, which is going out this week. The meeting isn’t for feedback, votes or permission of any kind, simply to inform neighbors of the project. As a side note, we have reached out to every property owner within a block and offered to meet and discuss the project with them individually. Beyond that, we are about to pick up our fundraising and marketing efforts again. We are about ⅓ of the way to our goal and expect to have a few more investors jumping in over the next few weeks. We’ll be holding a few more webinars over the next few weeks and would love for you to send any friends or family who might be interested in the project to check those out. We are happy to report that things are moving along smoothly thus far and we are on track with the schedule we have planned from the beginning. As always, please feel free to reach out at any time.