Silverado opts to move next door
Silverado Casino owners Terry and Judy Anderson have ended their bid to move into the former Quiznos sandwich shop, after meeting stiff opposition from the Kalispell Planning Board last month.
Instead they are remodeling the former Mr. Tux Sales and Rentals shop next door to the Silverado in the commercial complex at the corner of Idaho and Main streets. They expect to move in by summer.
Judy Anderson said the casino will remain open while remodeling work continues on the new space.
The Andersons operate the Silverado at the west end of their former restaurant, Barley’s Brewhouse and Grill, which closed over the winter after they lost their lease. She said all leases in the complex came due in January, but she and her husband worked out an extension for the casino with landlord Don Peterson of Western Brokers. It’s the only space still occupied in the complex, she said.
City planners officially got word of the change in direction in a March 29 e-mail from D.J. Walker, withdrawing a request to change a zoning provision and to obtain a conditional use permit for the casino.
Walker and Phil Neuharth are partners in Northwest Montana Holdings, which developed Parkwood Plaza where Quiznos was located before moving to Hutton Ranch Plaza last year.
The e-mail follows on the heels of a March 9 Planning Board vote to deny the zoning text amendment that would have allowed a casino to be located as close as 150 feet to another casino when either U.S. 2 or U.S. 93 separates the two. The current minimum distance for all locations is 300 feet.
At that Planning Board meeting, the Andersons told the board they had lost their lease and were looking for a new location. The former Quiznos, located in the south end of Parkwood Plaza on U.S. 2, two blocks west of the Silverado, seemed the perfect place, they said.
Negotiations had progressed to the point where Walker and Neuharth subdivided the building to keep the casino outside the 300-foot limit from residential zoning to the north. But when they discovered it was about 285 feet from the Gold Bar Casino to the southwest, they put in for the zoning text amendment.
Planning Board members objected.
Some on the board saw it as micromanaging the zoning code to benefit one business proposal, without rethinking the underlying reasons for putting that 300-foot separation in place initially. Others cited the use of scarce liquor licenses, which the Andersons hold, for such ventures when instead the community could benefit from family-friendly restaurants that cannot buy a license.
Still others pointed out special provisions enacted so the Hilton Garden Inn could build its casino on U.S. 93 South across from Lions Park, and so the Montana Club could build on the former Sawbuck Saloon property.
They also considered objections from neighbors Nick and Jane Kartheiser, who said their home in the north half of the same block would suffer from traffic, noise, alcohol use, and potential theft and property damage.
After the Planning Board voted to recommend the City Council deny the zoning text amendment, it tabled discussion on a conditional-use permit to operate the casino in Parkwood Plaza.
After Monday’s withdrawal, neither issue will go to the council.
“We did not choose to go to the City Council and have them tell us no, too,” Judy Anderson said.
“Moving would have increased our business a bit and the parking situation is a little difficult sometimes,” at the present location, she added. If a new restaurant goes into the old Barley’s location — Peterson reportedly is interested in brining a new one there — the parking could become an issue again, Anderson said.
The Silverado’s new location will add about 600 square feet over its current space, and will be a stand-alone entity. They plan to serve snacks but not offer a restaurant menu, she said.
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com.