City Grill

Wayne Hammon 
CEO 
Idaho AGC

“The best way to summarize the construction outlook for Boise is to count the number of tower cranes in the downtown area,” Hammon says. “Even with the continual growth the area has seen, it’s been a few years since we’ve had four cranes operating at the same time.” 

Hammon says as Idaho continues to lead the nation in population growth, the Boise market remains hot with several exciting projects announced or already underway. “At the front of the pack is multifamily housing, with developers putting up multistory apartment buildings as quickly as they can,” he says. “In addition to the private money, the state of Idaho has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in both the repair and maintenance of existing state facilities as well as the construction of new ones.  

“While the short-term forecast is for more of the same, contractors are starting to look further out and are hoping that higher interest rates and other factors do not stop developers from investing in Idaho. This uncertainty and the continued struggle to find skilled tradespeople are the two largest headaches for most Boise-area contractors,” he says.