A majority of the former Gateway West Mall, once a business anchor to Kalispell’s west side that now houses nearly a dozen nonprofit human service agencies, will be sold through an online auction next month.
Kellie Danielson, president and CEO of Flathead County Economic Development Authority, said the building’s owner has decided to sell the site.
American Capital Group, a private equities firm headquartered in California, will auction off the 100,000-square-foot property on Auction.com on May 19. The starting bid will be $600,000 and the auction will run for three days.
The 60,645-square-foot section of property where TeleTech operates will not be part of the sale. FCEDA owns that piece and leases it to the call center.
However, the pending sale does potentially threaten to uproot the 11 nonprofit agencies based in the former mall, including the United Way Volunteer Center, the Flathead Food Bank and Violence Free Crisis Line.
Sherry Stevens, director of United Way, said the group of agencies is developing a strategy to purchase the building through the auction.
“It has always been the intention to purchase this property for the community center project,” she said.
“If we don’t do this project here, we believe in this project enough that we will try to replicate this somewhere else in the community. We’re not going to let go of Earl Bennett’s dream.”
Bennett, a longtime county administrator, had envisioned developing a community center with centralized health services.
In 2009, a collective of local nonprofits banded together and leased the former mall site with the goal of developing Bennett’s vision.
The group, under the name Gateway Community Center, Inc., finalized a 10-year agreement with American Capital to lease more than 55,000 square feet of space for a variety of agencies.
Today there are 11 agencies: United Way, Flathead Food Bank, Best Beginnings Council, Boy and Girl Scouts, Appointed Special Advocates for Kids, Summit Independent Living, Montana Conservation Corps, Literacy Center of Northwest Montana, Violence Free Crisis Line, AARP and VIPA Tax Services.
There are also three community conference rooms that are open to the public.
Stevens said the group is developing plans for a youth activity center at the former mall building.
The property is adjacent to the Montana Department of Health and Human Services facility, which includes Child and Family Services and Welfare-to-Work related programs.
Originally called the Gateway West Shopping Center and Plaza, the mall opened in the spring of 1973 on an open section of 26 acres on U.S. Highway 2 West. The city annexed the land in 1972 to make way for the massive $4 million project, which was one of the most expensive commercial developments in the city’s history at the time. The plaza began with five separate buildings, including a brand new 26,000-square-foot Safeway, while the mall boasted a variety of 20 retail shops that were bustling with activity. It underwent a major remodel in 1984.
But with the advent of the Kalispell Center Mall in 1986 and the emergence of the northern retail district in the last decade, attention shifted away from Gateway West. The closure of the Gateway Cinema in 2007 marked the final blow to the retail site, and it sat largely vacant until the Gateway Community Center established itself in 2009.