Idaho legislators set aside $9.6M more for ITD Boise campus repairs, but more funding will be needed

Yahoo

19-03-2025

Extensive damage is visible during a Dec. 19, 2024 visit to the Idaho Transportation Department's former Boise headquarters. (Clark Corbin/Idaho Capital Sun)
The Idaho Legislature's powerful budget committee set aside another $9.6 million in state funding Tuesday to renovate the Idaho Transportation Department's flood-damaged and mold-infested former Boise headquarters.
The $9.6 million from Tuesday is on top of the $32.5 million Idaho legislators set aside last year to renovate the property located at 3311 W. State St. in Boise. That brings the total to $42.1 million.
However, that funding level still falls more than $22 million short of the state's $64 million to $69.4 million estimates to renovate the damaged building.
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Rep. Soñia Galaviz, a Boise Democrat, made the motion to approve the Idaho Transportation Department's fiscal year 2026 budget enhancements that included the new funding for renovations.
The decision came during the Idaho Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, meeting at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise. JFAC is a powerful committee that sets every budget for every state agency and department.
The $9.6 million for renovating ITD's former Boise headquarters came from zeroing out a $9.6 million request for the Idaho Transportation Department to relocate its District 4 headquarters from Shoshone to Twin Falls.
In an interview Tuesday, Galaviz said the new funding can pay to clean up some contamination that will need to be addressed before the real renovations can begin.
'We had heard that there were some abatement issues, some asbestos and other hazardous materials, that if they had this money they could get started on them because that has to happen before any of the remodels can,' Galaviz said. 'So we were hoping that this would allow them to get moving.'
Galaviz and Rep. Rod Furniss, R-Rigby, told the Sun that funding and renovating the State Street property will require a multiyear effort. They expect to come back next year and consider a request for additional funding.
'This gets them started, then when they get into it they will know what to ask for,' Furniss said.
The Idaho Transportation Department's former Boise headquarters was built in 1961.
On Jan. 2, 2022, the building flooded and was contaminated with asbestos. It has been vacant since 2022.
During a tour of the damaged building in December, state employees pointed out mold to a reporter with the Idaho Capital Sun. The elevators and fire suppression systems do not work. Electrical systems and wiring dangle from ceilings. Walls and ceilings show visible signs of water damage, including dozens of holes that crews drilled into walls in an attempt to let water escape. The interior of the building is filled with tangled wire and ruble. The heat and power only work in parts of the building.
The summer after the flood, in August 2022, the Idaho Transportation Department's board declared the former Boise headquarters and the 44-acre campus it sits on 'surplus property.' That opened the door for the state to sell the property after other state agencies did not express an interest in the property.
The state put the State Street campus up for auction, and a group of buyers including Hawkins Companies, FJ Management and Pacific West Communities submitted the high bid of $51.7 million, according to documents provided to the Sun by the would-be buyers.
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During a tour of the campus in November 2023, Idaho Department of Administration Director Steve Bailey told the Joint FInance-Appropriations Committee that the state sold the property to Hawkins and its partners for $51.7 million, the Sun reported at the time.
But on March 1, 2024, JFAC blocked the $51.7 million sale of the property, told the state to keep the property and set aside $32.5 million to renovate it.
At the time, legislators said they thought it was more financially responsible to keep the building and renovate it.
'…(E)verything I have heard is any time the state has sold some property, two or three years later they go, 'well, we shouldn't have done that' and they've actually tried to buy some of it back,' Sen. Kevin Cook, R-Idaho Falls, said at the time.
The $32.5 million JFAC set aside last year for renovations was a rudimentary, sight unseen estimate prepared by the Idaho Division of Public Works that did not take into account the extent of the flood damage and HVAC repairs, the Sun previously reported.
Then, in December 2024, the Idaho Department of Transportation released a 207-page report that estimated it would cost between $64 million and $69.4 million to repair the former Boise headquarters.
On Tuesday, Galaviz said she knew the new funding isn't enough to repair the building, but she hopes the new funding at least gets the project moving.
'Because they have to do the abatement first before they can do anything else with the remodel,' Galaviz said.
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