Hotel obstacles look to be minor

For once, the city of Kalispell has the kind of problems we wish we had - like how to spend $1.2 million and how to accommodate a new hotel and convention center.

The Gateway Hospitality Group is proposing to build a 148-room Hilton Garden hotel - along with an upscale restaurant, 8,000-square-foot conference center, and casino - at the former site of the National Guard armory near the city airport.

Not only does that seem like a positive development in and of itself, but it is also a vindication of the City Council's belief that the city airport has the potential to be an economic generator for Kalispell. Hilton and the Gateway Group did not pick that location by accident - they wanted to be next to the airport.

So what's the holdup?

The council voted Monday night to move ahead with discussions with the developer, but there are several sticking points that have the potential to scuttle the whole deal. We think they are all relatively minor and should be dealt with as quickly as possible.

First of all is the developer's insistence that the property needs to house a casino to help pay for the cost of the liquor license. Anyone who has studied the situation already knows that many national chains simply won't consider Montana because of the high cost of liquor licenses in our major cities. That's a fact of life here, and so is the growth of the casino industry in general.

Maybe the Legislature should look at changes in either liquor licensing or casino operations, but in the meantime these are the rules that apply, and Kalispell needs to work within these rules but not shut out growth because of them.

Secondly, the location of the casino across U.S. 93 from Lions Park should present no obstacle whatsoever to approval. In the first place, there is no reason to think that the casino operation will have any impact on children at the park. The highway is a suitable barrier. But even more to the point, casinos are located next to many locations frequented by children - malls and restaurants, for instance. A casino near a park presents no more of a problem, and maybe less. It's true that children and casinos don't mix, but the park issue is a red herring.

So is the matter of the city's zoning requirement that limits buildings in the airport area to a height of 40 feet. Airport rules allow for a building of up to 50 feet at that location, and one presumes the zoning requirement is based largely on safety concerns. If those safety concerns are met with a building of 50 feet, then it should not hold up the project.

Finally, the City Council is wondering whether the armory property, which Kalispell acquired as a gift when the Guard moved to its new quarters, is worth more than the asking price of $1.216 million. That's a fun bit of speculation, but since no one else even submitted a bid besides Gateway, we have to assume it is worth $1.216 million and no more. Everyone wants more money for their "prime" piece of real estate, but sometimes you have to take what you are offered.

And though the council doesn't yet know what to do with the money, we aren't worried about that "problem" either. One thing we are sure of is that government will always find a way to spend money.