Days after Fresh Life Church purchased the historic Montana Building in downtown Kalispell, the property’s tenants, including child and family therapists, psychologists and nonprofit organizations, remain concerned and uninformed about the future plans.
More than a dozen tenants, some of whom have worked inside the building for decades, have leases that are ending in the coming months, but whether those leases will be renewed remains uncertain.
“We’ve all just sat with a lot of anxiety,” said Shawn Trontel, a psychiatric social worker whose practice has been in the Montana Building for 25 years.
“I just want to have a sense that I know what’s going on. It’s not OK to be left in the dark this long.”
Fresh Life Church purchased the building at First Avenue East and Second Street earlier this week from Gentry Family LLC. The building’s manager, Brenda Profitt, referred all questions about the sale to Fresh Life Church, which declined several requests for comment.
Many of the tenants first learned of the building’s sale on April 12 after the Daily Inter Lake reported the news.
“We were just stunned,” said Cheryl Amundson, who began working inside the building in 1979 and serves as an office manager for psychiatrist Dr. Alan Quint.
“Our lease is up in July and we haven’t heard anything, not a word, about what the plans are. It’s just a sort of feeling of helplessness.”
Flathead Land Trust, a nonprofit organization devoted to conservation efforts, has operated inside the building for nearly a decade and has a lease that ends in June.
“There’s some uncertainty with the new owners and their plans for these offices but we have no plans at this time to relocate if we can help it, as it’s been a good office and location for us for quite some time,” Flathead Land Trust Executive Director Paul Travis said.
The sale marks the third building in downtown that Fresh Life Church has acquired. The church moved its original headquarters from above the Overflowing Cup coffee bistro on Main Street into the Strand Theatre on Second Street East in 2007. The church purchased the theater in 2010 and that same year also bought the nearby Liberty Theatre and former First Avenue Café building next door to the Montana Building.
The church previously leased space in the downstairs portion of the Montana Building. The two-story brick building was constructed in 1910 in the heart of the growing city as the Hotel Montana with a separate downstairs storefront along First Avenue East. Touted by historians for its architectural integrity, the building still contains many of its original features, including marble and wooden floors and high-pressed metal ceilings with skylights.
Over the last century, the large building has housed a variety of commercial enterprises, from a restaurant to a liquor and cigar business to its modern-day setup with a collective of nearly a dozen professional offices that includes child and family therapists, psychologists, lawyers and nonprofit organizations.
The sale marks another prominent downtown building going off the city’s tax rolls. As a nonprofit, churches do not pay property taxes, nor would Fresh Life be required to pay into the city’s downtown business improvement district.