Longtime Missoula Redevelopment Agency head, Geoff Badenoch to move on

Badenoch to step down after 21 years at helm

Missoula Redevelopment Agency director Geoff Badenoch will leave his job Jan. 2 after more than two decades of work revitalizing downtown Missoula.

By GINNY MERIAM of the Missoulian

He’s never had a bad day at the MRA, he said in an interview Tuesday.

But, he said, "After 21 years of working at the MRA – that I’ve absolutely loved – I just felt that it was time for me to do something else with my life."

Badenoch is teaching a graduate class in public administration at the University of Montana this fall. But beyond that, he doesn’t know what that "something else" will be, he said. The years at the MRA honed his skills in managing and administering, he said, as well as taking ideas and turning them into brick and steel, public art and improved green spaces.

Badenoch is one of those rare people who is able to see the forest and the trees, said Hal Fraser, chairman of the MRA board for 11 years and a board member since 1991.

"I admire Geoff Badenoch in his vision and his knowledge of public-private partnerships more than anybody I can think of," he said. "I respect him so much."

The MRA has played a prominent role in reshaping the downtown of the past two decades. A public agency governed by a board and run by a director, it works by creating partnerships among itself, downtown merchants and property owners and the city. Its tax-increment money leverages private money for improvements. The increased value brings more tax money for more improvements.

Very few buildings downtown have been untouched by the renewal, said Mayor Mike Kadas. Look around downtown, and the fingerprints are everywhere: the parks, the trail system, Caras Park with its pavilion and carousel, the Bank Street parking lot, Central Park parking structure, the Park and the Palace housing renovations, the historical facade program.

"Just look at the downtown," Kadas said. "Clearly, MRA under Geoff’s leadership has made a huge impact on downtown. It’s everywhere."

Badenoch is hard-pressed to name a favorite project. But he admits to a soft spot for the Clark Fork River riverfront revitalization, much of it accomplished with the dedication of longtime board member Ron McDonald. Caras Park has turned into a true town square, he said, that can see during a short time a public car show, a wedding, a meeting of the German Club, a bluegrass band, a patriotic rally and a beer festival. That’s outside of the successful summer Wednesday event, Out to Lunch.

"Everybody claims Caras Park as theirs," Badenoch said. "People don’t know how or why that place is there. They just know they enjoy it."

Among the disappointments of the job was the failure of an attempt to build a pedestrian bridge over the Clark Fork River from Caras Park to Southside Park. In retrospect, he said, "We couldn’t tell people what it would look like."

Badenoch, who’s 49 and grew up in Bozeman, was earning his master’s degree in public administration at the University of Montana in 1981 when he met then-MRA director Les Prentice in connection with Badenoch’s internship developing an urban renewal plan for Bozeman. In September, Prentice hired him as a half-time temporary employee with no guarantees. Badenoch kept getting promoted, and when Prentice left in 1985, Badenoch was interim director. After a national search, Badenoch became permanent director in the spring of 1987.

He has a top-notch staff and dedicated board members, Badenoch said, who guided him without stifling his ideas.

It has been so long since Badenoch was hired that it’s not clear exactly how the board and the mayor will proceed. Badenoch’s intent in giving a long notice is to help with the transition.

"It’s going to create a hole that we’re going to have to work to fill," Kadas said. "Geoff has been a resource to the city, and you’re not going to find someone just like Geoff to fill that spot."

Badenoch has no plans to move, he said.

"I love Missoula," he said. "I plan to stay here and find some way to contribute to the community."

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

http://missoulian.com/articles/2003/09/03/news/local/news02.txt