Caldwell-based company Quality Machine Products plans to move into a new building soon that’s twice the size of its current facility, said general manager Rob Doyle.

The company is contracting with the Van Auker Companies to built a 30,000-square-foot building valued at $1.84 million next door to its headquarters on Industrial Way, according to building permit records provided by the city of Caldwell.

Boise city leaders and developers turned some earth the morning of Sept. 22 at Parcel B—a 5-acre property near the I-84 Connector that is set to become what they're already calling "Pioneer Crossing."

"Right here is the Pioneer Walkway," said Gardner Company Chief Operations Officer Tommy Ahlquist. "We thought, 'Why not call this Pioneer Crossing?'"

The development will include an almost 650-space parking garage, as well as a 150-room Hilton Garden Inn and 132,000-square-foot office building. Also sharing space in Pioneer Crossing will be a restaurant; retail space; and the offices of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Boise Valley Economic Partnership, and the Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau. 

If you’re looking for an expert on leading employees through tremendous change, consider Andrew Scoggin. You’d be hard-pressed to find a human resources executive whose resume includes a steeper uphill climb.

Scoggin is the executive vice president of HR, labor relations, public affairs and government relations for Albertsons, the grocery chain based in Boise.

Albertsons in the past four years has transformed from a midsized company to the second-largest traditional grocer in the U.S. It also went from owning none of Idaho’s Albertsons stores (despite having its headquarters and roots in Boise — a quirk that confused many Idahoans) to owning all Albertsons stores in its home state and many other grocery-store chains nationwide.

The firm designing the Indian Creek plaza said the layout will create a vibrant, livable space for families and the community in downtown Caldwell. Christine Harrington, an associate with the Seattle-based design firm GGLO, presented concept design plans to the Caldwell City Council on Monday. The council unanimously approved the plans. Harrington said the plaza design highlights Caldwell’s uniqueness. “There is a lot of richness and exciting elements in Caldwell,” Harrington said. “You see the history and the architecture, the diversity and the multiple generations that live here.”

The design and plaza atmosphere will draw from the area’s agricultural history, with modern elements linking to the Sunnyslope wine trail and farm-to-fork tradition, Harrington said. In the summertime, visitors could eat outside at a restaurant bordering the plaza and later walk to an outdoor concert or event at the plaza’s central stage. At capacity, the plaza could hold around 6,500 people, Harrington said. If Arthur and Seventh streets were to be closed temporarily, the area could accommodate around 13,000 people.

An ice skating area in the shape of a ribbon with a circular rink in the center is planned for the plaza, with “warming huts” where people can congregate, eat and drink. “The other thing I find very romantic about the ice rink is that you’re going through different environments as you skate,” unlike a stationary hockey rink, Harrington said. The railing at the ice rink and accessories can be removed during the summer. In those same places, there would be water-splashing areas for children to play. Councilman Dennis Callsen said that after attending the Indian Creek Festival this weekend, which drew big crowds, he believes Caldwell is ready for the plaza.

NAMPA — There’s a new craft brewery in town, and it could end up being the largest in Idaho.

San Diego, California-based Mother Earth Brew Co. will open its tasting room doors for business by Oct. 1, possibly as early as Sept. 24. It is now one of two commercial producers of beer in Nampa.

“When it came to think about where to expand from California, it was an easy choice,” said Daniel Love, founder and CEO of Mother Earth Brew Co.

Love started traveling to Boise as part of his job with Sprint Nextel in the early 2000s and fell in love with the area. His passion for hobby brewing developed into a family-run business in 2008. Mother Earth distributes craft beer to eight states and six countries, and hopes to expand further into the Northwest and eastward with its Nampa facility, located in the Interstate 84 Industrial Park at 1428 Madison Ave.

Victor and Sarah Olivares smiled and applauded as their son Isaac accepted a certificate from Boise Mayor Dave Bieter for completing a summer coding course at the Boise Public Library. Sarah Olivares said she found the course while looking for free and constructive activities to keep Isaac busy before he started seventh grade last week at Lowell Scott Middle School. She new nothing about coding, but her son had expressed interest in engineering. She figured a chance to pursue his passion for computers was a good thing.

Victor Olivares said the six-week course, with once-a-week classes in introductory JavaScript, could yield greater dividends later in an economy demanding an increasingly code-literate workforce.

“Coding is in everything right now,” he said. “The opportunity for Isaac to learn at this age was just great.”

If Isaac pursues a career in technology, he can start by walking behind the library and looking up 8th Street. Within a few blocks to the north, he will see a startup co-working space, a new Downtown code school and the Boise State University’s Computer Science Department.

If he pokes his head into offices within a few blocks of Eighth Street, he will find dozens of software companies that are part of a broader Treasure Valley tech industry that is snapping up code-school and Boise State computer-science graduates.

Housing’s back. Indeed, the same industry that sent the U.S. economy into freefall nearly a decade ago is on its feet again. The trust issues linger among Americans, however, fearing another housing crisis as real-estate markets heat up across U.S. metro areas.

But there’s evidence to the contrary. Citing U.S. Census Bureau data, the New York Times recently reported that sales of new single-family homes were higher this past July than in nearly 10 years. Nationwide, which tracks the health of U.S. real estate, reported at the end of quarter two that “the overall U.S. housing market is sustainable,” adding that “few regional housing markets are vulnerable to a housing downturn.”

In light of such good news, WalletHub’s analysts compared 300 U.S. cities across 16 key metrics to help prospective home buyers find the most attractive real-estate markets. Boise ranked #4 Best.

Bish's RV Super Center started construction this week on a new three-story dealership in Meridian, company spokeswoman Megan Walker said. The facility will absorb the Nampa store near the Franklin Boulevard/Interstate 84 interchange, which has outgrown its space, she said.

Targeting an April open date, Bish's RV will move its roughly 50 employees from Nampa to Meridian and plans to hire 30 to 40 more people, Walker said. The 53,375-square-foot building in Meridian will have 22 service bays, compared with the eight service bays in Nampa, she said.

"Meridian just seemed like a great central hub for the Treasure Valley," Walker said. "We found a great piece of property, visible from the freeway. And it just made sense to build in Meridian, especially with all the development going on, too, in that city."

Boise was recognized for its friendly sense of community and active, pedestrian-friendly downtown this summer in a report from Smart Growth America, a national nonprofit that promotes policies that make communities more walkable and liveable.

In its summer report, Smart Growth selected Boise; Denver, Colo.; Greenville, S.C.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Pittsburgh, as places that offer a high quality of life in areas such as housing, restaurants, nightlife, and accessibility. The cities are using smart growth principles to successfully attract new companies and new residents, the report said.

“Boise, ID, is one of the most remote metropolitan areas in the United States, a fact that fosters a unique and friendly sense of community,” the report said. “The city prides itself on friendly people, mild climate, good jobs, easy access to outdoor activities, and affordable costs of living.”

Cyclist Kristin Armstrong has a regular job and a son. And as of today, she also has three Olympic gold medals. After becoming the only cyclist — male or female — to win three consecutive golds in the same discipline, Armstrong, who turns 43 Thursday, said she hopes to inspire other moms.

After calling this victory at Rio's Summer Olympics "the most gratifying" of her three individual championships, Armstrong urged other female athletes not to let negative ideas seep into their minds about what they're capable of.

She said: "I think that for so long we've been told that we should be finished at a certain age. And I think that there's a lot of athletes out there that are actually showing that that's not true.

"For all the moms out there, I hope that this was a very inspiring day."

She then discussed the importance of balance in her life as a world-beating athlete: "Working at a great hospital in Boise, Idaho, and being a mom has been my secret weapon. It provides me balance and it keeps me on track and it keeps me super focused."

Eileen Langan Barber, co-founder of a Boise online fraud detection company, has donated $250,000 for a tutoring center in Boise State University’s computer science program, which is opening this fall in a new location in Downtown Boise.

The Kount Tutoring Center is named for the company that Barber, 47, helped start in 2008.

Boise State’s computer science program will begin classes this fall in the Clearwater Building on The Grove, located on Main Street near Capitol Boulevard.

Money will go toward furnishing the center, including computers. said Tim Andersen, Boise State University computer science department chairman.

The tutoring center is aimed at helping students with difficult introductory classes in computer science, where they must must learn computer language, Barber said. “You are learning a lot of new stuff all at once,” she said. “Learning a new language for anybody is intimidating.”

She also hopes her donation fosters more involvement in computer sciences among women and minorities

Sometimes it's hard to keep up with all the growth in Meridian — new homes, new apartments, new restaurants and new businesses. Here's a one-stop shop for information about five interesting developments.

1) Digitization at the Library
2) The Vault Patio
3) Flatbread Expands
4) Black Rock Coffee Bar
5) Growth at the Village

Dozens of cars filled that parking lot for an event Tuesday morning where CWI unveiled conceptual plans for the new campus, a project officials hope to be ready for students by 2020. The campus could be up to 600,000-square-feet, according to Craig Brown, vice president of resource development for the college.

About 20,000 students are enrolled in the College of Western Idaho, according to numbers provided by the college.

City and education officials, including Boise Mayor Dave Bieter, Ray Stark of the Boise Chamber of Commerce and Boise State University provost Martin Schimpf spoke at the event, providing their take on what this new campus means for the community.

“What our economy needs most are the skilled workers that are going to feed the jobs of today and tomorrow,” Bieter said. “And that’s where CWI’s place in all of this is. Our economy, our jobs, our city, our valley and our state simply have to have the skills to compete, and CWI is all about that. This spot is ideal for that kind of activity and that kind of job generator.”

Construction employment grew at a faster rate in the Boise area than in all but one of the nation’s metro areas over the past 12 months, an industry group said Tuesday.

The Associated General Contractors of America said the Boise area added an estimated 3,600 construction jobs between June 2015 and June 2016, a 19 percent increase to 22,600 workers. Of the 358 metro areas the association tracks, 228 grew, but only Kokomo, Indiana, grew at a faster rate, adding 200 jobs to last year’s 1,000.

One building begets a second building, then a third building and eventually an entire college’s worth of buildings. That’s the continuing story at the College of Western Idaho, the seven year old community college in Nampa that has grown to more than 20,000 students.

CWI intends to start construction within one year on a three story, 80,000 square foot Health Sciences Building directly across the canal from the Academic Building. The estimated $32 million to $35 million building is anticipated to be ready for students in fall 2019. Anchoring the south end of the future quad will be the 140,000 square foot Student Success Center. Construction on the $40 million project is foreseen for an early 2020 start with completion predicted for fall 2021...