Outlaw shuts down for renovation

Three-year hotel overhaul planned

The Daily Inter Lake

The management at The Outlaw Inn has announced a temporary closure of the south Kalispell hotel, starting Dec. 27, to make way for an interior overhaul.

The Kalispell Hospitality Co., which has owned the hotel for three years, plans a “massive property improvement initiative” starting with replacing interior hallway carpeting. That work will require a closure of the 218-room hotel through May 1.

But that will not be the end of the planned improvements.

Other projects will include upgrades to the elevator, replacing computer systems and networks, refurbishing the convention center, remodeling guest rooms, upgrading heating and ventilation systems, refurbishing the parking lot, upgrading the facility’s hot water system and building a new swimming pool.

“We expect this entire improvement initiative to take more than three years,” Bryan Scott, president and chief executive officer of Kalispell Hospitality Co., said in a news release Monday. “However, the people of Kalispell should be prepared to see a dramatic and immediate change in the Outlaw Inn.”

Scott said Kalispell Hospitality Co. is working with Mountain West Bank and new investors to finance the improvements.

“We look forward to returning the hotel to the condition that the amazing people of Kalispell expect it to be,” he said.

The Bulldog Bar and Casino will remain open and the hotel will be open on a limited basis for several conventions planned over the next few months.

The hotel management also plans a promotion project based on the hotel’s long history in Kalispell.

“We are asking everyone who has pictures of themselves at the Outlaw, or pictures of an event that took place at the Outlaw, to send them to the property with a short narrative explaining the circumstances surrounding the photo,” Scott’s press release states. “We will not only use these on the property, but will also be utilizing them in a marketing campaign to showcase the Outlaw Inn and the Flathead Valley that will be featured in a short television program as well as print ads.”