Treeline Center developer breaks ground
A developer has broken ground on a 6.8-acre tract of land on the north end of Kalispell known as Treeline Center. Mounds of dirt and nearly a dozen various hydraulic land-moving pieces of machinery dot the landscape, along with large industrial piping to be buried in the near future. The ensuing development will have six separate lots with a range of commercial uses.
The land, which is located just across the U.S. 93 bypass from Glacier High School, off Treeline Road, is state trust land managed by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. It is currently undeveloped grassland, enclosed with a chain-link fence that has banners with the name of the developer, Bridgewater.
It rests in a portion of town that has been slated for mixed-use commercial development for some time. The swath of town that is similarly designated includes the U.S. Forest Service Office, the U.S. 93 Bypass, Fire Station 62 and a Marriott Hotel. It all sits not far from Glacier High School.
It also lies extremely close to the Bloomstone residential subdivision, which includes a mix of apartments and single-family residences.
Across Treeline Road from Treeline Center and closer to the Bloomestone subdivision is another tract of land called Treeline One, according to Anne Shaw Moran from the state DNRC.
She said Bridgewater also won the RFP for that parcel, but they had yet to secure a lease. She suspected it would lead to more commercial development, but cautioned that until a lease is signed nothing was set in stone. She referred further questions to Bridgewater, but the developer didn’t return a request for comment by press time.
On Thursday morning, there were additional pieces of large machinery doing work on that parcel of land as well.
The DNRC land is managed to create revenue that is directed toward educational resources in the state. Both Treeline Center and Treeline One are on state trust land and fall under that umbrella.
In a public release a week ago, Bridgewater said there were still three commercial lots available for potential businesses but that the others had been filled. It said the commercial buildings could range in size from 1,500 to 6,000 square feet.
It has been previously reported that there could be a hotel and mix of office and retail spaces in the development and that one of the businesses would be a Grease Monkey oil change location.
The project will also include a small utility lot. There is no permanent residential component to the development, so the impact on schools is expected to be minimal, according to a report on the development done by Kalispell Planning Department staff when the project was still a proposal.
The report also states the added traffic should be easily handled by the roads and intersections that were built with the nearby housing development, so no significant changes would be needed. The development will be hooked up to the public water system.
Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at (406) 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.