Real estate and development in Idaho Falls stay strong through pandemic

IDAHO FALLS — Development at Snake River Landing provided hundreds of jobs throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unemployment in the United States skyrocketed to nearly 15 percent during the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak. But new unemployment numbers show the job market may be healing quicker than expected. In eastern Idaho, one area of the job market stayed strong throughout the whole thing: real estate and development.

“Here in Bonneville County, in Pocatello and Twin Falls and the Treasure Valley and North Idaho, the real estate market is booming,” Gov. Brad Little said in a recent visit to Idaho Falls.

Ball Ventures-owned Snake River Landing in Idaho Falls has multiple projects underway, providing more than 415 construction jobs.

“I think we’re capturing probably more than our fair share of the growth that’s happening in Idaho Falls when you (consider) there are 90,000 square feet under construction right now between the three office buildings that are under construction,” Ball Ventures Chief Development Officer Eric Isom said.

Projects that have been under construction or were finished during the pandemic include:

• Beard St. Clair’s 14,500-square-foot building being built near Bill’s Bike and Run.
• The 14,700-square-foot Pier View Drive multi-tenant office building.
• The Knolls, a 60,000-square-foot multi-tenant office building.
• A 96-unit expansion of the Falls Apartments.

Snake River Landing consists of 450 acres of land. To date, 135 acres have been developed, meaning they have been built on or have the infrastructure in place for development.

“We have about 350,000 square feet of finished office, retail, restaurant space with another 90,000 under construction,” Isom said.

Isom said contractors have worked to put protocols in place to help keep COVID-19 from spreading.

“It’s in everybody’s best interest to keep everybody working and not have people sick,” Isom said. “Everybody…works really hard on the job sites to make sure that they follow the protocols and try to keep everybody safe and keep everybody healthy.”

Although COVID-19 hasn’t prevented continued progress at Snake River Landing, it has had some effect.

Isom said Ball Ventures staff is excited to have the Larry H. Miller Megaplex movie theater come to Snake River Landing but are still working out the timeline for exactly when that will be.

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“The timing of that…is a function of how all this COVID-19 stuff shakes out and when we can get back to some sort of a new normal. Until that happens, it’s pretty hard to say the timing on it. We’re excited to be working with them and looking forward to that day when that can move forward,” Isom said.

He said he is looking forward to more development at Snake River Landing.

“We think it’s the place to be in Idaho Falls,” Isom said.