Imagine, in Meridian: Nestled between a sleek six-story hotel and pool-topped apartment buildings, young professionals and families mill about an outdoor plaza. Some stop in bodegas, restaurants and shops, or hit the gym. Others grab tacos from food trucks and sit around a fountain to eat. Above, hotel guests and studio tenants lounge on rooftop patios overlooking the Boise Mountains.
This is the vision Matt Baker wants to bring to Idaho’s second-largest city.
For the past three years, the longtime Treasure Valley developer and his team at DRB Investments have been studying larger markets — the likes of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles — to figure out the “highest and best use” for a 37-acre piece of land near downtown Meridian that Baker’s family has owned since 1990…