After years of preparation, one of Boise’s largest construction projects is finally inching forward after workers reduced an iconic downtown store to rubble.
The project, with a nearly $200 million price tag, aims to build a new downtown Boise YMCA, over 400 apartments and roughly 30,000 square feet of commercial space on three city blocks south of Boise High School.
The first step has brought the demolition the old Idaho Sporting Goods store at 421 N. 10th St . — across State Street from the YMCA. In its place, a group of developers plans to build a three-story Y with the potential to add a fourth floor.
The store was a part of the city’s fabric for over 60 years.
Hugh Brady and his family owned the sporting goods store, which supplied uniforms for generations of high school students, ski equipment, fish and hunting licenses, scuba gear and just about anything an athlete could want, according to prior Idaho Statesman reporting .
“We used to sell tickets to the Boise-Borah football game when it was just about the biggest thing around,” Nick Brady, Hugh Brady’s son, told the Statesman in 2018. “People would line up outside the store early in the morning to buy tickets. You could say that Idaho Sporting Goods grew up with the city.”