Oct 24, 2008

Steady growth amid economic challenges

September 3, 2008

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By: The Associated Press

Construction and business activity around the Magic City continues to change the face of our community, keeping thousands of building industry employees busy, even at a time when economic pressures have taken the wind out of many a company's sails.

Activity on the West End dominates this review of just a few of the developments:

• The $45 million Shiloh Road reconstruction project is under way. The City Council just awarded a $2 million contract to COP Construction to install water and sewer lines along the road between Pierce Parkway and Poly Drive. It is one of several utility projects that must be completed before the major road-widening and roundabout work begins on Shiloh next summer.

• The Kohl's department store, which anchors the Shiloh Crossing shopping center at the corner of Shiloh and King Avenue West, is nearing completion, and several other stores in the center are taking shape. The rebuilt stretch of King Avenue West, complete with roundabout to serve the center, is now open.

• Faith Chapel has moved into its new $17 million, 80,000-square-foot building on Shiloh.

• The Reef, a 30,000-square-foot indoor water park, has opened at the Wingate by Wyndam Hotel off the Zoo Drive exit from Interstate 90.

• Across from The Reef, a Sportsman's Warehouse store has opened on Pierce Parkway.

• Prestige Toyota's new headquarters on Grand Avenue is nearing completion.

• The headquarters for General Electric Commercial Finance is taking shape on Hesper Road.

• And more retail space, professional offices and residential properties are popping up in the area. One of the most recent launches is Brookshire Commons, an office-retail-residential complex at Central Avenue and 29th Street West.

Elsewhere in the city, work continues:

Off South Billings Boulevard and I-90, the Cabela's project is back on track at the new Town Square shopping center and work is under way on improvements to the interchange overpass and on King Avenue East to Orchard Lane. In the Heights, bridge builders are completing the big span over Alkali Creek, which will open up new options for commuters driving from the Heights to other parts of the city.

Downtown hasn't been overlooked. The Crowne Plaza has invested more than $10 million in renovations. St. Vincent Healthcare and Billings Clinic continue their medical corridor projects, which include the clinic's $29 million cancer center and $18.5 million surgery center. The Mustangs baseball team is wrapping up its first season in its beautiful new home, Dehler Park. First Interstate Bank will build a 65,000-square-foot operations center in the North Park area that could cost more than $13 million.

We're excited by reports that developers are trying to buy the Babcock Theatre and restore it and remodel the two-story building's retail space and residences on that prime downtown corner. Several other retailers and restaurateurs are investing in the area.

Though there's a lot of good news downtown, we still have some city-center concerns. For the second time in two years, the Northern Hotel is back in foreclosure. Sitting on one of the prime downtown corners of the city, the Northern and its sorry status is a downtown downer. And we're disappointed in news that efforts to fully develop the Stapleton Building, kitty-corner from the Northern, are running into trouble.

Amid all the news of positive developments, there are still some challenges that downtown leaders need to address. Even in these tough economic times, we're confident that these prime downtown sites will get the attention and investment they deserve.