Winston Moore: From pheasants and farmland to a Boise business mecca
Eldorado In 2001, Moore bought 85 acres of alfalfa land at the intersection of Eagle and Overland roads at what is now the Eldorado Business Campus. “That one was pretty scary because we closed about two days after 9/11, and nobody in the world knew what was going to happen to the country at that time,” he says.
“When we bought the land, it was way out on the west side of nothing. But if you overlay an aerial photograph of the valley, you see that the intersection of Eagle and Overland is dead center in the middle of the valley. But more importantly it’s just two blocks from the freeway interchange, making it easy to get to. In fact, the campus can be reached in about 15 minutes from just about any place in the valley,” he says.
Other W.H. Moore Treasure Valley projects include a $13 million data center for Albertsons, a 42,000-sq-ft building for Idaho Power, two 35,000-sq-ft buildings for Great West Casualty Insurance, a 65,000-sq-ft facility for Capital One Financial and a 25,000-sq-ft corporate headquarters for Trusjoist McMillan, among others.
Today, Centrepoint Marketplace, a 60-acre retail shopping center with anchors such as Kohl�s, Walgreens, Dick�s Sporting Goods, Hobby Lobby and Verizon, is located in Meridian at the intersection of Eagle and Ustick roads and considered to be the premier shopping center in the area.
Today, the project, located at the center of the Treasure Valley, offers a premium setting for a wide range of business offices and retail establishments. The campus has five-lane interior streets, landscaping throughout, decorative street lighting, strong architectural controls, immediate freeway access, and a high-capacity communications and utility infrastructure.
Moore says today’s market is uncertain, so he is not buying land right now. “There is so much distressed property now that we get offers every day,” he says. “If our current property was built out, we still have $100 million in development to do without acquiring more land.”
Moore’s success is a combination of hard work and smart decisions. “We do our work cautiously and with a lot of study. In this business, there is always risk, and a lot of folks aren’t willing to take those risks. It’s basically a risk-reward thing,” he says.
