Paving Kalispell’s Future

Since Kalispell’s founding as a railroad town in 1891, rail service for the major industries in downtown served as the town’s lifeline. Over the last decade, however, the city’s major movers have created a vision of the downtown corridor to revitalize the city’s core, spur development and turn a two-mile stretch of land into a bustling hub anchored by a pedestrian trail. 

Just three years after the last freight trains rumbled through the heart of Kalispell, city officials and community partners took to the old railway near Main Street to celebrate the long-dreamed-of rail trail becoming a reality. 

“It’s been over 100 years since that railroad first came and drove the economic growth in Kalispell and the Flathead,” Kalispell Mayor Mark Johnson said at the July 21 ceremony. “Now the Parkline Trail is a centerpiece to downtown Kalispell—we have a safe route through town, recreational opportunities and open opportunities to spur redevelopment downtown. 

The Kalispell Parkline Linear Park and Trail, designed by Alta Planning + Design in partnership with KLJ Engineering, bisects Kalispell from Meridian Road to the west across to the U.S. Highway 2 underpass in Evergreen. The trail runs through three distinct downtown districts: the Granary District, marked by the old CHS silos now under development by Mick Ruis; the Downtown District from Fifth Avenue to Third Avenue crossing U.S. Highway 93; and the Park District which passes above Woodland Park. 

“It was overwhelming to see people really using the trail and park in the way we’ve envisioned for so long,” said Katharine King, Kalispell’s Community Development Manager who has worked on the project for more than a decade. “This has just been a relay — so many different partners, agencies and individuals who carried the torch at different times — and now we’re seeing their success in person.”

The Kalispell Core and Rail redevelopment program has been in the works since the city received a planning grant in 2010, sparking the most robust public outreach effort the city has undergone. The core area surrounding the railroad includes nearly 1,100 parcels spread across 365 acres. Over several years, King met with 139 property owners, representing 60% of the properties, to discuss what they wanted to see in the redevelopment. 

“Getting out there to do outreach and collecting and sharing information, that kind of continual public engagement was key to making this project work,” King said. “There were certainly years where it felt like a duck paddling along — no one could see how much work was being done behind the scenes, but the community maintained their faith and we remained committed.” 

Funding for the redevelopment was the biggest hurdle for the project, which cumulatively crossed the $40 million mark of public and private funding. “It’s not a project that any one entity could reasonably have taken on,” King said. “It’s definitive of why you have a role of government versus just private institutions. No one private business was ever going to build an industrial rail park or decide to acquire and rehabilitate a Superfund site.”

One major partner in the effort has been the Flathead County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA), which acquired a gravel pit north of Kalispell to construct an industrial rail park, an essential piece to the puzzle. With the aid of a $10 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant, the Glacier Rail Park was built and the final rail-served businesses relocated from the core area. 

FCEDA was also instrumental in helping cleanup several of the old industrial properties, including the old CHS grain silo properties on the west side of town and the former CHS Agronomy center on the east end. 

“Those were an undertaking and a half,” FCEDA president and CEO Christy Dawson said. “Anyone who’s done environmental work on buildings knows how complicated that kind of clean up can be. It was really the biggest lift over the last few years to get those cleaned up and find developers willing to work on them.” 

The former CHS grain elevator property has become one of the most visual transformations along the Parkline Trail after developer Mick Ruis purchased it. Ruis is building 230 residential units on the parcel and plans are in place to perch a restaurant and a bar cut into the silos’ upper sections. The first 80 residential units are on pace to be finished this fall. 

On the other end of the trail, Molly McCabe, the CEO of HaydenTanner, a strategic advisory and development firm, is planning a mixed-use development on Fourth Avenue East North. The 5-acre parcel’s development is still in the early stages and McCabe is working with a local designer to create a mixed space that will include at least 80 units, likely apartments and townhomes, along with local restaurants and retail space.

“This is just the beginning of how much redevelopment will continue to happen downtown and how much is still to be built,” Dawson said. “There’s enough people who see the long game here in Kalispell, know it’s a great place to live and want to help the city grow with more industry and business.”

Kalispell City Manager Doug Russell said it’s been a true testament to all involved that the entire redevelopment project never lost momentum through the years. 

“Even when the fiscal components seemed huge and plans kept shifting and getting delayed, the goal has always been the same and we kept moving forward,” Russell said. 

King added that the core partners never wavered from their commitments, even as the project’s ups and down brought some doubts within the community that the end was in sight. 

“I was a zealot from the beginning. I mean I always believed that we could do it and it’s been my role here to help the rest of our community believe it was going to happen and believe in their own role to help it,” King said. 

While the Parkline Trail is officially dedicated and open to the public, there is a lot to look forward to. The plans include several possible additions to the linear parkway, including a playground, pump track, skate park, splash pad and outdoor amphitheater.  

“It’s been a big hill to climb, but it’s been worth it every step of the way,” King said. “And truly, this is just the beginning of Kalispell’s transformation.”