In business, there’s always the question of supply and demand – does a customer have a need for a product, and if so, is there enough of the product to meet that need?
Supply and demand applies to many of the aspects in the business world, and in Kalispell, the demand for land in the north side of town is high, while the supply is steadily dwindling.
Kalispell’s north end is dominated by large national chain stores packed in on either side of U.S. Highway 93, a booming, bustling retail center in the Flathead Valley.
In the last year, multiple major businesses cut ribbons and opened their doors to the public. Michaels, an arts and crafts store, along with PetsMart, MacKenzie River Grill and Pub, Boot Barn, Ulta and Verizon have filled in the storefront spaces around the Cabela’s Outpost. A Chick-Fil-A restaurant is also expected to open.
Other major anchor stores include Costco, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes and Target, and like a gravitational force, these major businesses draw other retailers to the same area.
The activity has effectively produced a retail boom, but the lack of land in the same area has planners and real estate professionals looking at where development will go next, once all of 93 North is full.
Tom Jentz, planning director for Kalispell, said the space around Cabela’s is “all but spoken for,” and the same company that developed the retail spaces there is eyeing a section of open land south of the Costco, near the KidsSports Complex.
The Cabela’s area was phase three for TKG Spring Prairie Development, and the potential fourth development phase, called Victory Commons, would take up 28 acres on the Department of Natural Resource and Conservation land south of Costco.
“It would be a mixture of retail, hotel and restaurant,” Jentz said. “That would be another phase very much similar to what you see near Cabela’s.”
The company hasn’t submitted a proposal for the area yet, but it has started creating lots with plans to extend sewer and water lines to the state land; the land on the west side of Highway 93 is state trust land, leased by the retailers. On the east side, the retailers own the land.
But after Victory Commons, there’s little left to develop. And the questions are, where will development go next, and would it be feasible to compete with an area that has such focused retail activity?
“We would like to think there’s interest in south Kalispell,” Jentz said. “The trouble is, retailers are real finicky and where it’s hot you go, and it’s hot up there (on 93 North).”
Aside from south Kalispell, Jentz said another potential expansion site could be north of Reserve Drive, near Eisinger Honda, a piece of land called Glacier Commons that was supposed to become a massive mall, but the project fell through. Another is west of the newer developments.
“A little bit of a sleeper is all the land to the west of Cabela’s,” Jentz said. “There’s a couple large pods that could be developed.”
The new Glacier Eye Clinic is already there, he said, and other businesses may follow.
But developers can’t keep building stores forever; the population has to be able to support the retail business, Jentz said, though the Flathead has help from Canadians coming here to shop.
“It’s not an indefinite supply; you just can’t keep building forever, there’s a limit on what we can absorb,” Jentz said. “We are over developed for just Kalispell, but we play bigger than just Kalispell.”
Jim Kelley of Kelley Appraisals said the land north of Reserve has potential, but there would have to be a draw, a popular anchor store, or else the site would dry up.
“I just don’t see anything really starting to grow out north of the river there until you’ve got a major anchor that wants to establish itself out there,” Kelley said.
Another potential area could be the land behind the Walmart, currently owned by Flathead Valley Community College, he said.
“That certainly has the potential of being commercial since you’ve got the road going through it,” Kelley said.
FVCC president Jane Karas said in an interview that the college doesn’t have any solid plans to sell the land, though there is definite interest from developers.
“At this point, we really haven’t discussed selling any property,” Karas said. “I can’t say that I would rule it out in the future.”
The college’s board of trustees would need to approve the idea to sell off the land, and then it would have to go on the open market, she said. This concept will be part of the board’s ongoing work on the college’s master plan, which will be discussed in the spring.
Other potential uses for the land could be using it to expand the college to serve the students and the community, Karas said.
If development on 93 North looks full, Kelley said he would expect it to head over to Evergreen, where there is a supply of commercial space.
Victory Commons will likely fill fast, he said, and the old DNRC buildings likely demolished to make room for more.
“But after that, boy,” he said. “I just don’t know where they could end up going.”