One of the largest skateboard, clothing and lifestyle companies in the world has announced they will be moving into a location next door to the newly reconstructed Rhodes Park in downtown Boise.

Element (who is owned by surfing and clothing conglomerate Billabong) will be moving in a retail space across the alleyway from the park to conduct business operations.

CEO and founder Johnny Schillereff told 6 On Your Side that he fell in love with Boise and is looking to escape the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles where the company currently resides.

Idaho has ranked No. 1 in the nation for job growth in the past year, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Idaho was among 37 states that had a statistically significant increase in employment between March 2015 and March 2016.

The steepest rise was in Idaho, where employment grew 3.6 percent.

The Capitol City Angel Fund, associated with the Boise Angel Alliance, says it has invested undisclosed amounts in three Boise companies over the past few months: IdeaRoom, Proskriptive, and RetroLux.

The $1 million-plus fund’s members are accredited investors. The fund makes investments in high-growth, early stage local companies. Since the Boise Angel Alliance’s founding in 2004, funds and members have invested over $12 million, mostly in local companies. The alliance says the companies have since created more than 350 jobs in Idaho.
 

Hotel developer Obie partners has poured the concrete deck of its third floor for The Inn at 500 Capitol hotel project at Myrtle Street and Capitol Boulevard. It’s the first of three active downtown Boise hotel projects to reach that height.

The Residence Inn by Marriott project across Myrtle from Inn at 500 and Hyatt Place at 10thand Bannock streets are both on their second floors.

This is the first time Boise has had three simultaneous hotel construction projects. All started between September and early January, and all three, with a combined 449 rooms are expected to open in the first half of 2017.

Three brothers run Proof Eyewear.  In 2010, they started with $5,000 each, working from a garage-cum-office. Today, they’re an Idaho success story selling their glasses in over 20 countries around the world. “You probably don’t think of Boise when you think of innovative start ups,” says COO Tanner Dame. But Proof is proud of its Idaho roots.  “We really love our town and where we’re rooted is a big part of it,” says Tanner. Looking to reinvent the eyewear industry, the three Dame brothers, Taylor, Brook, and Tanner, are experimenting with different materials for both prescription and sunglasses, and giving back to the global and local community

Idaho experienced the largest increase in employment growth in the country between March 2015 and March 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The number of employed Idahoans rose 3.6 percent to 691,800 workers – an increase of about 24,000 workers.

Idaho saw growth across most industries, but its largest increases were hospitality and leisure, construction and manufacturing, according to the Idaho Department of Labor.

The City of Trees is home to a bustling community of brewers, and Mike Francis, Payette Brewing Company’s founder, is leading the charge. Mike was an industrial engineer for Boeing Company in Seattle before abandoning the corporate life and becoming a grain wrangler. After receiving his degree in Brewing Technology from Chicago’s Siebel Institute of Technology, he returned to Boise on a mission and soon after established Payette Brewing Company in 2010. Six years later, Mike’s expanding the brewery’s Northwest footprint and leading the craft brewing charge in Idaho.

It’s fairly well known that one of the problems in the beef industry is not lack of competition per se, but proximity. Some feedlots and many of the mother cows in the country suffer from long geographical distances from packing plants.

Now, two of the best known names in western agriculture, Caviness Beef Packers and J.R. Simplot Co., are partnering to help remedy that situation for Northwest cattlemen, especially ranchers and dairymen. This past July, the two companies announced plans to join forces and build a $100 million, 380,000-sq.-ft. plant.