Idaho Falls drive-in theaters open for summer; owners seek buyer

Right now the Sky-Vu and Motor-Vu drive-in theaters in Idaho Falls are only open on weekends, but that will change to a full-week schedule in a few weeks with the advent of summer.

Idaho Falls' two drive-in movie theaters, the Motor-Vu and the Sky-Vu, are still for sale, but if you think you're going to buy them for a peanuts you've got another thing coming.

The price for both is $2.4 million or $1.2 million apiece, said Marcia Leonard, who owns the properties with her mother, Dr. Elizabeth Page Dewsnup. "They make a lot of money," she said. "The people here love them."

It costs adults $7 for a double feature at the Sky-Vu.

The Sky-Vu sits on 9.1 acres on the south side of town, on land near the Snake River that could be very valuable for development. Anyone who wants to buy the property by itself has to promise not to operate the drive-in, because they don't want competing theaters, Leonard said.

The Motor-Vu is on 6.0 acres on the north side of Idaho Falls, with good canal frontage and water rights.

One can be forgiven for wondering how Idaho Falls, Pop. 57,000, hangs onto two "ozoners" while they are disappearing right and left all over America. In 1958, the United States had close to 4,000 drive-in movie theaters, said Jennifer Sherer Janisch, who operates the Web site www.drive-ins.com. Today, that number is less than 400.

Two things brought about their demise in the ’70s and ’80s -- rising land values and the advent of VCRs, DVDs and the Internet. That trend slowed down in the ’90s, and although she recognizes drive-ins will never be the mass market phenomenon they were in the Eisenhower era, Sherer said she’s hopeful about the future.

“In the last several years we've seen drive-in expansion, drive-in re-openings, and even brand new drive-ins,” she said. “Aside from the unique atmosphere and the fact that it's so affordable, people want good, clean fun, and drive-ins have it."

Leonard said people's love of the outdoors and family activity have made the local drive-ins successful. Although only open on the weekends at the moment, the Sky-Vu has a first-run double feature, "Star Trek: Into Darkness" and "Fast and Furious 6." The Motor-Vu's fare is a little older -- "Iron Man 3" and "Oz The Great and Powerful" -- but still fresh enough that some people may have not seen them.

Even if they have, "For $7, it's a good value," Leonard said.

Health Care Reform seminar scheduled June 12 at EITC

The Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce, Eastern Idaho Technical College and the law firm of Hawley Troxell are sponsoring a seminar June 12 called "What Employers Need to Know About Health Care Reform."

With 2014 only six months away, the clock is ticking for Idaho employers to bring themselves into compliance with the Affordable Care Act. Larger employers are looking at penalties if they do not provide minimum health coverage, but even before implementation employers are going to have to comply with new rules, fees and reporting requirements.

The program will be from 9 to 11 a.m. in the EITC Health Care Education Building, Rooms 6163 and 6164. Breakfast will be provided. To secure a seat, RSVP by 5 p.m. Friday using this link: Health Care Seminar Reservation.

The speakers will be Tom Mortell, Kara Heikkila and Bret Clark of Hawley Troxell, who will walk employers through a timeline for compliance and provide background information to make sense of the law. Topics will include compliance deadlines and how to properly classify employees and independent contractors to avoid or minimize penalties.

For more information, email jswenson@hawleytroxell.com or call (208) 388-4919.

D is for "demolish"

It has been said that if anything stands long enough, however ugly it may be it will become a landmark. This was certainly the case for the old D Street Underpass, which became history on Wednesday. The city and the Union Pacific Railroad are engaged in replacing the ancient, crumbling subway with a much wider and safer structure, to be finished in 2014. Sentimentalists, take heart. The old stone tower, on the right, the last remnant of the railroad depot that was torn down in 1964, remains on the grassy knoll overlooking North Yellowstone Avenue.

Teton Cancer Institute readies for opening, plans June 20 open house

The entrance to the Teton Cancer Institute, which should be open in the next few weeks.

The push is on to have the Teton Cancer Institute open in the next two weeks, with an open house scheduled for June 20.

Located in the shell of the old Idaho Falls Recovery Center, the practice will offer a new place for Idaho Falls cancer patients to get chemotherapy and treatment in relative comfort. The new facility will have 20 infusion pods and a special pediatric room.

The new facility will have four doctors from two different practices: Drs. Christian T. Shull and Nathan D. Adams of Snake River Oncology and Drs. Jeffrey D. Hancock and Dane J. Dixon of Teton Oncology.

Overall, the project will cover 175,767 square feet, with parking for 98 vehicles. The practice is being given a new address, 1957 East 17th Street.

IFSC Partners, a Portland, Ore.-based company, had building permits issued late last year for remodels of both the Idaho Falls Surgical Center and the Idaho Falls Recovery Center. Valuation of the first remodel was estimated at $1.31 million and the second at $1.47 million. When finished the two buildings will be connected by a common corridor.

The architect on the project is Ankrom Moisan Associated, a Portland firm. The contractor is Bateman-Hall of Idaho Falls.

Cortney Liddiard, CEO of Ball Ventures, and James Adamson, president and CEO of Mountain View Hospital, are listed on the building plans as the principals involved in IFSC Partners.

I.F. Power crews begin work on Northgate Mile

Idaho Falls Power crews will be replacing power poles and restringing overhead conductor cable along Northgate Mile over the coming weeks.

The work began Monday with replacement of a pole near the intersection of Northgate Mile and Elva Street and will continue south to Lomax Street.

Motorists are advised to take caution around the work sites. In most cases, the crews will be able to keep their vehicles off the road. On some days, though, vehicles could block a southbound lane of traffic. Signs and orange cones will be in place to alert motorists.

The work is needed to maintain the electrical infrastructure in this section of the city, some of which dates to the 1940s and '50s. The Northgate Mile project is expected to take at least a month and could continue into mid-July. Personnel will be on site daily from 7:30 a.m. until 3 p.m.

Idaho ranks fourth in nation in housing price resurgence

Stock prices jumped sharply this morning on the news that U.S. home prices had jumped 10.9 percent in March compared to a year ago, the biggest surge since April 2006.

At the end of the first quarter, prices across the nation rose 6.7 percent, with Nevada, Arizona and California leading the charge, and Idaho coming in fourth, largely due to a big rebound in the Boise-Nampa Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported prices of existing single-family homes in Idaho rose 15 percent in the past year, the fourth-highest rate of appreciation from the first quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

While Boise/Nampa posted the state's biggest yearly upturn -- 10.17 percent -- ranking fifth in the nation, Idaho Falls was not so dramatic, showing an uptick of .57 percent, and Pocatello home prices rose a modest Pocatello, 1.23 percent.

Before anyone in this part of the state gets too jealous, consider this:

• If you bought a $150,000 home in Boise in the first quarter of 2006, it would be worth $118,550 today.

  

  A line graph indexing Boise home prices from 2006 to 2013

• If you bought a $150,000 home in Idaho Falls in the first quarter of 2006, it would be worth $150,705 today.

  

  A line graph indexing Idaho Falls home prices from 2006 to 2013

I learned this by using the FHFA's Housing Price Index calculator, which can be found here: Housing Price Index Calculator.

The FHFA House Price Index is calculated using the purchase prices of homes with mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. "The FHFA index further reinforces that Idaho's economy and housing markets have stabilized and are improving," said Gerald M. Hunter, president of the Idaho Housing and Finance Association, in a press release.

Entrepreneurs prepare to participate in TechLaunch 10.0

Up-and-coming Idaho entrepreneurs will soon compete for up to $50,000 in cash prizes as Idaho’s next Entrepreneurial Idol and Crowd Pitch crown this year's recipients.

Hosted June 13 at the WaterCooler and the Linen Building in Boise and June 14 in the Skaggs Hall of Learning at Boise State University, entrepreneurs and innovators around Idaho and the region are preparing to compete in TechLaunch 10.0. The two-day event will include two different competitions:

• The Entrepreneurial Idol Competition is evaluated by a distinguished panel of judges who have all excelled in their particular fields and bring a wealth of knowledge regarding early stage financing to the event.  This year’s format will consist of semifinal and final rounds with prize money totaling $50,000.
• The Crowd Pitch, TechLaunch’s second event, is an elevator pitch competition that provides an opportunity for individuals to deliver their innovative ideas to TechLaunch attendees and compete for prize money.

In its tenth year, TechLaunch is designed to educate and provide a stage for entrepreneurs and innovators to practice and hone their pitches in front of the business/investment community.  Over the past nine years, TechLaunch has introduced many great companies to the intricacies of early stage financing.  Of the 72 companies that have previously participated, 55 are still in business and continue to grow and receive research, development, and investment capital.

Students and aspiring entrepreneurs are encouraged to attend this event to learn the complexities of product commercialization, start-up financing, and networking with industry leaders. Attendees have the option of registering for the reception, the competitions, or both. For more information, please contact Rick Ritter at (208) 908-0625 or rick.ritter@idahotechconnect.com.  Additional information is available at www.idahotechconnect.com/home/techlaunch.