Developers excited over prospects of Riverfront Triangle

Taking a walk along Missoula’s riverfront west from the corner of Orange Street and Front Street,
some will remember dinners at the Mustard Seed, movies at the old Fox Theater under its
spectacular sign and in its sliding red chairs, quick stops for gas at the Holiday station. Others,
maybe older, will see back to the old Bon Ton Bakery.

By GINNY MERRIAM of the Missoulian

Some see the wedge-shaped area along West Front Street bounded by Orange Street, the 400 and
500 blocks of West Broadway and the Clark Fork River as a pig in a poke that can’t seem to attract
developers. Others, like Geoff Badenoch, director of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, see a
"sow’s ear waiting to become a silk purse." St. Patrick Hospital president Larry White sees it as a
"pristine, phenomenal chance" for a first-class improvement to the west edge of downtown.

"That’s really the most exciting business story that’s going to be told this decade," White said in a
recent interview. "We’ll look back and say, ‘What a phenomenal opportunity this was.’ "

The eastern end of the area, about 3 1/2 acres, has been known for years as "the Fox site," after the
old movie theater that was there until it was demolished in 1990. The parcel includes, too, the ground
under the former gas station and Mustard Seed Restaurant.

The city, which bought the Fox from the Mann Theater Corp. in 1984, has entertained numerous
proposals for development through the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, at least five of which looked
good until the last minutes.

Today, the picture is different because the parcel is different. This past spring, the Western Montana
Clinic moved out of its offices and clinic on the riverfront west of the Fox site into St. Patrick
Hospital’s new Broadway Building. They swapped their old property for the new, making the hospital
the owner of the clinic buildings, three-story parking structure and 1 1/2 acres. The hospital already
owned about 2 acres between West Front Street and West Broadway.

Last winter, looking ahead to the city and the hospital being the major landowners of the parcel, St.
Patrick’s and the MRA collaborated on an event they called the Riverfront Triangle Charette. On Jan.
12, 43 municipal leaders, professionals and officeholders spent the day developing a vision for the
area.

"When we had this charette, it was remarkable the congruity of thinking of this diverse group of
people," White said. "It was the most remarkable example of spontaneous cooperation I’ve seen in
my career in Missoula."

The participants looked at the land owned by the city and the hospital, along with parcels owned by
individuals where Tire-Rama and Taco John’s and Budget Travel are located. Working in groups, they
experimented with designs that closed Front Street and designs that left the street open. They
looked at a mix of offices, retail and residential use. What about a 100-room hotel? A smaller outlet
of a department store?

They agreed that the development should go up several stories, with residential at the top. The new
incarnation should have a civic component, public art, a boulevard at Broadway and buildings that are
stepped back in height to make use of the light and the views of the river. Public access to the
riverfront should be maintained and improved.

"The Riverfront Triangle offers a tremendous opportunity for mixed-use development," said Allison
Handler, a participant in the charette who was until recently a West Side resident. "By that I mean
retail development, office development and residential."

Handler worked on the Northside-Westside Neighborhood Plan, adopted in 2000, at the same time
she was earning a master’s degree in environmental studies at the University of Montana, where she
concentrated on urban redevelopment design. For her thesis, she studied Broadway between Russell
Street and California Street. Development there, she said, has been away from automotive
businesses to small, neighborhood retail.

Development in the Riverfront Triangle should follow suit, she said, and should especially include
owner-occupied residential in the form of condominiums, cooperatives or townhouses.

For the hospital, development of the Triangle is tied to its plan to create a new home for the Safeway
grocery store. In a zoning change proposal to allow Safeway to build a new store two blocks west,
St. Patrick’s will be able to acquire the old Safeway and consolidate a four-block campus north of
Broadway. Acquiring the old Safeway would mean that the hospital could give up the parking and
offices it is now using at the old Western Montana Clinic and on other blocks south of Broadway. It
could then also recover the money tied up in those properties.

Handler and others hope the two will not become an "if Safeway, then the Triangle" proposal.

"While I think redevelopment of that property is really important for that neighborhood, I think it should
not be tied to Safeway redevelopment," she said. "It should not be a carrot-and-stick thing. If we don’t
redevelop Safeway, does that mean we can’t redevelop the Riverfront Triangle?"

At the Office of Planning and Grants, Dale McCormick, who’s the case planner, said the St. Patrick’s
proposal involving Safeway is absolutely being considered separately and on its own merits.

The Triangle, valued in one appraisal at $10 million, incorporates the Fox Site problem of a 9- to
15-foot deep layer of debris and garbage that was dumped regularly from 1885 through the 1930s and
occasionally until 1945 and is now fill. MRA test drills have found it is not hazardous, and it is
covered with a 6- to 9-foot cap of clean fill. It must be removed before buildings are built for reasons of
stability.

One MRA idea is underground parking at the former dump.

"This would be the site for parking," Badenoch said. "As long as we’re digging a hole, we could do
this."

The missing piece of the equation is a big one.

"Of course, the one missing ingredient is the private sector developer," said Chris Behan, project
manager for the MRA.

The MRA will actively look for that partner with the capital, he and Badenoch said.

Among those who couldn’t be more pleased about the attention being paid to the West Broadway
corridor is Missoula and Darby businessman Kent Jura. Jura, who owns two motels in downtown
Missoula, said downtown is becoming a robust place to do business. He started looking for more
opportunities last winter and spring.

"I talked to a Realtor friend of mine, and he told me, ‘Gosh darn, downtown is hot,’ " Jura said in a
recent interview. " ‘It’s selling.’ "

Jura and his wife, Polly Jura, came across Goofy’s Gas on West Broadway near Scott Street.

"We like the downtown area, and that was such a good spot," he said.

Jura bought the station in June and has begun a beautification project there, reworking the concrete,
clearing weeds and trash, painting curbs and the like.

"It’s going to look nice," he said. "We’re going to doll it up."

Goofy’s will also be the first in the area to be a Montana Refining Co. distributor. The Great Falls
refinery is the smallest full-product refinery in the country, producing about 420 million gallons of gas
in 2000. The refinery is teamed up with City Service Inc., a distributor based in Kalispell.

Most MRC stations are in eastern Montana. The closest to Missoula is in Deer Lodge.

"We got a lot of incentives," Jura said, "because we’re the first in the area."

The small refinery is sensitive to the needs of the smaller, independent stations, he said, unlike such
giants as Conoco and Sinclair, where the minimums are too high for the small retailer.

"It’s a little refinery," Jura said, "compared to the other boys."

The West Broadway neighborhood is great, he said, and so is its growth. Development of the
Riverfront Triangle can only help. And the threat of a new Safeway with gas pumps nearly across the
street doesn’t worry him.

"Not really," he said. "Different market."

Reporter Ginny Merriam can be reached at 523-5251 or at [email protected].

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