Downtown Twin Falls is nothing like it was five years ago. In a good way. The downtown revitalization appears to have given new life to many businesses and the streets seem to get more foot traffic than in previous years. The revamped medians on Shoshone have given the streets a cleaner look and the splash pad has given families a new reason to head downtown. The new city office building looks awesome and there will soon be a new big building across the street.

On August 12, 2019, the Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Twin Falls request was addressed in a city meeting for the new building. The Idaho Youth Ranch Thrift Store is no longer in use and will be torn down starting this month to make way for a new six-story building! That will be the tallest building in downtown and in a great location. KMVT reports that the plans include four levels of residential units, a level for offices, and the bottom level will be open for a retail store.

This sounds like it will be an awesome addition to the Downtown scene. Demolition of the current Youth Ranch building should begin this month and some residential units should be ready for occupancy by spring or summer of next year, according to Executive Director Nathan Murray. You could still run into an issue with parking on Main but that is usually remedied if you are willing to park in the bigger lots behind the Main Street buildings. Parking issues will be negotiated between the city, developer, and the Urban Renewal Agency. As far as calling a six story building a 'skyscraper' it comes down to who you trust. Dictionary calls a skyscraper a building of many stories and Wikipedia defines a skyscraper as a building taller than 40 floors.

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