New plan surfaces for Courthouse East

The Courthouse East building in Kalispell might be home to senior apartments and art studios under a new proposal to be unveiled Monday.

DEV Properties will outline its plans for the building at a community meeting from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Monday at Hedges School.

DEV Properties wants to renovate the building, putting in apartments for senior citizens and spaces artists could use. The building also might house a small coffee shop. The exterior of the 93-year-old building would remain the same.

"We'd kind of like to restore it to its former glory," Dave Rickert said.

Rickert, a longtime Flathead Valley resident, is part of a three-man team that has a buy-sell agreement with Matt Gelinas, the current building owner. Rickert's partners live in Washington state and have ties to Montana.

They agreed with Gelinas in December that they will buy the property assuming their plans for the building are feasible, Rickert said.

If that's the case, DEV Properties will buy the property by late March and likely begin construction by early April. In the meantime the partners want to check if their plan is palatable to neighbors.

"We are concerned what about what they think," Rickert said. "And we want them to be happy."

The facility opened in 1912 as the Kalispell Hospital. It later became known as Courthouse East and housed various county offices, including the health department and planning office.

Flathead County initially tried to auction off Courthouse East in 2002. But nobody matched the $324,000 minimum bid price because the building is contaminated with asbestos. After the county lowered its price, Gelinas Development acquired it for $175,000.

Rickert declined to say how much DEV Properties would pay for the building.

In 2003, Gelinas proposed building a 24-unit duplex townhouse subdivision on the property. About 50 neighbors spoke in opposition to the plan at a Kalispell City Planning Board meeting. They cited concerns about traffic and that the townhouses would detract from the east side's historic character.

Converting the property to a small number of single-family home sites - as most of the neighbors wanted - wasn't feasible, given the cost of demolishing the aged building, Gelinas said.

However, Rickert said renovating the building won't be as expensive as Gelinas initially thought. The contamination isn't as extensive as was first believed and some of it can be sealed off rather than removed.

The planning board recommended denial of the townhouse proposal, after which Gelinas tried unsuccessfully to sell at least a portion of the building for use as a health-care facility or professional offices. There was neighborhood opposition to that proposal, too.

The debate over Courthouse East led to the formation of a neighborhood association. DEV Properties met with that group about three weeks ago.

Association member Robyn Balcom said she thought opinions were mixed but that the group seemed generally positive about the developers' plans. The neighbors also appreciated the developers approaching them, she said.

"They've just been so cooperative," Balcom said. "What they don't want to inherit is a war."

The developers will be available for questions after Monday's presentation.

Reporter Camden Easterling can be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at ceasterling@dailyinterlake.com