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Gateway West Mall to Become Campus for Nonprofits

By Beacon Staff

The heads of several local nonprofits announced Tuesday their intention to establish Kalispell’s Gateway West Mall as a centralized campus for human service agencies and a community center.

The group, under the name of a newly formed nonprofit entity, Gateway Community Center, Inc., has finalized an agreement with American Capital, which owns the mall, to lease more than 55,000 square feet of space for a variety of agencies.

“Being co-located in a center like this gives us the advantage for our participants to come to one location,” Janet Cahill, director of the Violence Free Crisis Line, said. “It’s going to be a little family of agencies.”

The Violence Free Crisis Line moved its offices from downtown Kalispell to the Gateway West Mall in July, and the Court-Appointed Special Advocates for Kids program moved there two years ago, to test whether the mall worked as a location for non-profit agencies. The Gateway West Mall is currently home to four businesses – New West Insurance, Midas Muffler, the Mail Room and TeleTech – which will remain there, but much of the former retail space in the mall has been vacant for years.

Cahill has found the ample parking, increased office space and quiet setting to be an ideal place for her agency, which seeks to aid victims of domestic violence and raise awareness of the problem in the Flathead.

“Our participants can come here – they feel like they’re coming into a warm, welcoming environment,” Cahill added. “Once we fill in with other agencies, I just think that will blossom one hundred-fold.”

Other organizations planning to move into the mall this year include the United Way, Flathead Food Bank, Summit Independent Living, Montana Conservation Corps and the Glacier Institute. With Eagle Transit already making hourly stops there, and the recently built Department of Health and Human Services facility across the parking lot, participants in these programs will be able to save time and gas money having all the agencies in one spot.

Some of the agencies moving in also plan to re-open the mall’s food court, and will begin operating an espresso bar, pizza and sandwich shop, and candy store as a revenue source. The goal is to create a place that is once again a center for the community, serving families, seniors and children, with space available for school performances, art shows, fairs and other events.

The United Way will serve as the fiscal agent for the Gateway Community Center, operating under a 10-year lease with the option to purchase the building at any time. The Gateway Community Center board hopes to be able to buy the mall within the next three years. Incentives are also on offer for agencies moving into the mall, like deferred rent for the first month.

“We recognize that this is a big undertaking and the agencies can be a little nervous about it,” Susan Moyer, a former community development director for Kalispell who has been working for years on the Gateway Community Center project, said. “We’re trying to find every way possible to encourage them to come and to help them.”

The Gateway Community Center is now seeking the help of local businesses, volunteers and contractors to help retrofit the old stores into office space. The first donation to the project, an $8,558 grant, came from Flathead Electric Co-op to help pay for safety equipment. The group also hopes to secure state and federal grants to pay for other improvements.

Jim Taylor, chairman of American Capital Group, said he was delighted with the mall’s new purpose, calling it a natural fit for the agencies’ needs.

“This is a terrific re-use of a property that has great bones and now has a new heart in it,” Taylor said.