Amid growth with services across the West, Fresh Life Church is expanding with a new building in downtown Kalispell.
Work is underway on a two-story, 16,000-square-foot building that will connect the Liberty Theater and Montana Building along First Avenue East. The addition is valued at $2.8 million, according to plans submitted to the city of Kalispell.
John Mark Creamer, operations pastor at Fresh Life, said in a press release that the atrium-style foyer will bridge the church’s existing facilities and “bring all the various aspects of Fresh Life’s weekly worship experiences under one roof and outside of winter weather.”
Creamer said the new addition will embrace and maintain the existing structures and allow the church to overhaul and expand its kids facilities. He said it will also “drastically increase our lobby and meeting space and upgrade our broadcast capabilities.”
The church is in the process of expanding to new cities across the region and unveiled new services on Sept. 10 in Butte, Great Falls and Portland, Oregon. The church also plans to begin a service in January in Jackson, Wyoming.
The church, established in Kalispell in 2007, already has services in Missoula, Whitefish, Billings, Bozeman, Helena, Polson and Salt Lake City, Utah. Alongside its services, the church also produces radio, television and online broadcasts, worship records, social media and podcasts.
Fresh Life Church purchased the Montana Building along First Avenue East in April 2016 and did not renew the leases for more than a dozen business tenants. The church previously leased space in the downstairs portion of the Montana Building.
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 Theater and former First Avenue Café location next door to the Montana Building. The First Avenue Café building was demolished to make room for the new addition, as was a small section of building attached to the Montana Building.