Kalispell North Town Center to Incorporate the City’s ‘Newest Community’

On Jan. 23, 2008, the Kalispell City Council approved a development north of West Reserve Drive that was at the time the largest annexation in Flathead County’s history. Comprising 485 acres, it was designed as the future hub of commercial and residential space that Tennessee developer James “Bucky” Wolford envisioned as a “lifestyle center,” with more than 630 homes and 1.8 million square feet of commercial development called the Glacier Town Center.

The project was born out of an idea Wolford started brainstorming in the late 1990s to build a 750,000-square-foot shopping mall at the location – a plan that changed when the initial proposal in Evergreen failed. By the time plans began to gain traction in the early 2000s, malls were going out of vogue, and he shifted away from the traditional enclosed shopping center before it was approved by council. Following the approval, the mall plans fell apart amid economic turmoil, and the property saw no activity for a decade.

“There was a lot of public backlash,” said PJ Sorensen, the City of Kalispell’s assistant director of development services. “Then eventually he didn’t develop it, and the current developers took over and changed the vision and it was no longer a mall. Nationwide, you didn’t see the traditional mall development.”

The property eventually sold back to its original owners, the Claridge family, who homesteaded the agricultural land in the early 1900s and later launched LHC, an excavation and construction company, in 1969 followed by Stillwater Corporation in recent years.

A decade after the original mall proposal was approved, car dealerships, housing units and commercial offices slowly started sprouting over the next several years as the development finally came to fruition while Kalispell’s population grew.

“It grew out of that mall proposal,” Sorensen said.

Nearly two decades after the property was annexed, the Kalispell North Town Center is moving full steam ahead and will soon see the relocations of Costco and the Kalispell Toyota dealership as part of the city’s “newest community.” The property has seen 22 commercial lot sales, 80,000 square feet of commercial real estate already developed and an additional 300,000 square feet in the works. A pond with walking trails also exists to bring more connectivity to the nearby multi-family neighborhoods.

“North Kalispell’s growth has been really dynamic,” said Stan Converse, the founder of Cedar House Properties, at the Kalispell Growth Summit earlier this month.

Converse has been working with the Claridges to bring in commercial investment opportunities to the lot and describes north Kalispell as an area that’s seen a “tremendous amount of growth.”

“The Claridge family and Stillwater has done a fantastic job developing this area,” Converse said. “There’s been a lot of thoughtful growth.”

Over the years, several other developments have taken shape at the northern end of the city, including the Stillwater Bend development on the west side of U.S. Highway 93 at the Rose Crossing intersection, which recently finished construction of the Home2Suites. A slew of housing developments are also in the works, including the Eagle Valley Ranch apartments, Stillwater Village and the Tronstad single-family home development further north.  

Sorensen says the city has been gradually expanding north for years, and that its growth policy aligns with the expansion as infrastructure projects like the water tower have been constructed to accommodate the growth.

“Growth is happening in the ag areas and in our existing growth policy, we want to encourage growth adjacent to the city because sewer and water connections helps protect the aquifer,” Sorensen said.

As growth continues in north Kalispell, the construction of new stoplights are also sprouting to ensure safety with the increased traffic.

At the Growth Summit, Converse acknowledged the challenges ahead as traffic light installation generates controversy among residents.

“There are a lot of uncontrolled accesses so that’s going to be a bit of a touchy subject as we continue to grow … which means stoplights,” Converse said.

Stoplight proposals north of West Reserve Drive have been sparking controversy since the early days of the town center’s development two decades ago. Prior to the project’s approval in 2008, Wolford – the original developer – proposed adding multiple stoplights along U.S. Highway 93.

Residents strongly opposed the safety features and alternatives like ramp and overpass construction were suggested, which proved to be cost prohibitive. Critics at the time were also concerned it would be a gateway to add even more stoplights along U.S. Highway 93 continuing north to Whitefish.

Since the traffic safety battle began 20 years ago, a stoplight at the Rose Crossing intersection has been installed to accommodate the new developments and increasing traffic. After the controversial 355-unit Tronstad Meadows development was approved last year located to the north, project developers agreed to begin installing a stoplight at the intersection in the first phase.

According to a 2021 corridor planning study on West Reserve Drive, the Flathead Valley saw a 12% population increase since 2010, resulting in a strain on infrastructure. The study concluded the traffic congestion was nearing capacity. An estimated 18,000 to 20,000 vehicles travel on the west end per day with 2040 projections estimating there will be 30,000 to 32,000 vehicles per day.

“There are going to be some challenges – as there is with any new growth,” Converse said.

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