The Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency board has settled on a preferred developer for a long-discussed boutique hotel in the heart of downtown, tapping DeChase Miksis to pursue an 83-room project just west of Main Street and S. 6th Avenue. The pick is a milestone for a site near Indian Creek Plaza that city planners have eyed for years, but it is far from a done deal — board approval is not the same as city approval, and the money to build it still has not been identified.
A Board Vote, Not a Green Light
According to Boise Dev, the urban renewal agency board approved DeChase Miksis as the preferred developer for the downtown boutique hotel, but that selection marks the start of negotiations rather than the finish line toward city approval. The agency still needs to hammer out a disposition and development agreement with the firm, a process DeChase Miksis estimates could take about three months to finalize, per the outlet's reporting. Board member and City Council member Chuck Stadick voted against accepting the hotel proposal, the outlet reported, though the vote otherwise cleared the agency board.
The board weighed DeChase Miksis's pitch against a competing concept from Borum LLC through a request-for-proposal process, the report states. Borum's plan envisioned a building initially split evenly between multifamily housing and hotel rooms, with room types able to convert over time depending on market conditions — a flexible format DeChase Miksis's hotel-only concept does not share.
What's Actually Being Proposed
As outlined in the proposal documents described by BoiseDev, DeChase Miksis's plan calls for 83 guest rooms split between roughly 14 suite-style units and 69 standard rooms, spread across two buildings totaling 73,295 square feet. The design includes a 4,300-square-foot restaurant and bar, a nearly 3,500-square-foot fitness and wellness area, and an outdoor courtyard. Parking would come from 37 on-site spaces and 17 on-street spaces, supplemented by agreements for additional spaces at nearby properties.
The room count has already shifted once. Developer Dean Pape told the board on October 26, 2026 that DeChase Miksis initially considered larger hotel options with 88 or 112 rooms, the same report notes, and the proposal still allows the room total to grow during design. Those larger options carried steeper price tags — the firm's estimates put an 88-room hotel at $24.6 million and a 112-room version at $30 million, per the outlet's account.
The Funding Question Looms Large
Funding for the project remains undetermined, and that uncertainty runs through nearly every part of the deal. Caldwell City Attorney Mark Hilty said a development agreement likely would not move forward without agreement on a funding path, and he told the board the developer would likely seek a public-funding commitment as part of that agreement, according to the same report. Hilty also said funding options could include bonds, such as local improvement district bonds, but cautioned that board members cannot commit city funding to the project and that the city likely would not have the millions in urban-renewal money the hotel would need, based on current projections.
Dean Pape said DeChase Miksis might need financing for public infrastructure built alongside the hotel, echoing a pattern from the firm's earlier work downtown. The Tilian apartments, which DeChase Miksis also built, required public infrastructure separate from the apartments themselves, and the firm received urban renewal and city funding for frontages, utilities and other public improvements in that project, the outlet reported. Pape and Borum LLC representatives both told the board their respective projects would require public funding to be completed.
City Officials See a Long-Sought Piece Falling Into Place
Caldwell staffer Ofelia Morales said the city had considered a downtown boutique hotel even before she joined city staff five years earlier, according to the report, and she argued overnight hotel guests could boost spending at local businesses and activities. The concept also lines up with Envision Caldwell 2050, the long-range plan the Caldwell City Council adopted in August 2026, which suggests a boutique hotel at this site. The report notes a boutique hotel could reflect Caldwell's agricultural and historic heritage, regional food and wine culture, and identity as an emerging destination.
If the agreement comes together, DeChase Miksis anticipates a 12-month design and permitting process, with construction potentially starting in June 2028 and wrapping up by summer 2029, Boise Dev reported. The project would still be subject to standard city review covering planning and zoning, site development and engineering before any shovels hit the ground.
A Developer With Deep Local Ties
DeChase Miksis is not a stranger to this stretch of downtown Caldwell. Beyond the Tilian, the firm has developed the 21st Avenue hotel in Caldwell near the county fairgrounds, and in Boise it has renovated the Averyl Tiner building into the Avery Hotel and developed Thomas Logan, the Lucy, the Martha in the West End neighborhood, and the Ash and River townhomes in the River District.
This is also not the first hotel concept floated for downtown Caldwell. Obie Hospitality previously proposed a 75- to 100-room boutique hotel with meeting space, a restaurant, rooftop bar and fitness center on a surface parking lot at Blaine Street and 6th Avenue South, near the Nancolas Center and a block from the Tilian, according to idahostatesman.com. A separate earlier proposal across from Indian Creek Plaza envisioned three buildings on 1.4 acres: one potentially holding an approximately 60-room boutique hotel, a second with residential and retail space, and a third with retail, parking and residential or office space, per idahopress.com.
Downtown's Track Record So Far
The site's broader momentum traces back to Caldwell uncovering Indian Creek in 2008 and converting the former King's Department Store into Indian Creek Plaza in 2018, developments the Statesman's report ties to the area's revitalization. DeChase Miksis's own Tilian project, a mixed-use development with multifamily housing, retail and restaurants connected to the plaza by a pedestrian alleyway, opened in December 2023 with 142 apartments and 7,900 square feet of retail space, according to a Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency annual report. That same report found the Tilian's apartments at 95% occupancy with its retail spaces fully leased.
Caldwell has also moved forward on hotel development elsewhere in the city. The City Council accepted a development agreement with AJA Ventures for a hotel on city-owned land in the Event Center District on a 4-2 vote, and the city's initial plan for replacing parking affected by that project called for adding more than 2,000 spaces across two phases, Boise Dev reported separately. Whether Caldwell can find a similar funding path for the DeChase Miksis hotel near Indian Creek Plaza remains, for now, an open question.
