Original Reporting

Living at the mall: new details on apartment project on old Sears site

Last week, we told you about a plan to build apartments on the site of the former Sears store at Boise Towne Square.

Now we have a more complete look at how the project would work.

The Madison Town Square project would tear down the existing large Sears store which adjoins the rest of the mall building. In its place, developers hope to build a series of buildings, a clubhouse and leasing office building, as well as an outdoor pool.

[Project Tracker: Boise Towne Square]

“The development site will feature amenities include vehicle and bicycle parking spaces, private pool facility and associated play area, access to mass transit (Valley Regional Transit transfer location and Park & Ride), over 10% of the gross site area designed as landscaped open space, as well as access to many local services,” Scott Hopkins with CSHQA wrote in an application letter. “Currently, the vehicle parking spaces provided exceed the parking spaces required. The parking and vehicle circulation design is simple, allowing for easy resident circulation while maintaining shopper access to the existing mall entry.”

Madison Town Square Boise
Site plan for Madison Town Square. North is at the top of the map. The existing Boise Towne Square is shown along the bottom. Via CSHQA

The project would fit largely within the footprint of the existing store, and wouldn’t change the mall’s internal roadway system. The apartment buildings would be arranged around landscaped internal courtyards.

The application calls for 251 apartments, with 126 one-bedroom, 91 two-bedroom, and 34 three-bedroom apartments – for a total of 410 total bedrooms. Submitted floor plans with the City of Boise show a shared laundry area in the clubhouse building. After the publication of this story, Hopkins contacted BoiseDev to say the shared laundry will be removed and each unit will include a washer/dryer closet.

[Office, apartments could come to Bogus’ downtown office building]

Approvals needed

The project will need to win design review approval, as well as approval for a planned unit development. The Boise Planning & Zoning Commission is set to hear the PUD at its September 20th meeting at 6pm at Boise City Hall.

Seritage Properties sold the property to MCG of Charlotte, NC earlier this year. Seritage’s name remains on the title for the property. Seritage filed a quitclaim deed to transfer the property to MCG in April.

Sears closed the store in early 2019 after a liquidation sale. The chain and its group of Kmart stores continues to shrink across the US.

Madison Town Square is one of several multi-family projects in progress around Boise Towne Square, including micro-apartments across the parking lot, and a 136-unit combo apartment and storage unit project across Cole Rd.

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Don Day - BoiseDev Editor & Founder
Don Day - BoiseDev Editor & Founder
Don is the founder and publisher of BoiseDev. He is a National Edward R. Murrow Award winner and a Stanford University John S. Knight Fellow. Contact him at [email protected]. His Twitter handle is @donlday

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