Developers envision college at old hospital site

Local developers have purchased the old North Valley Hospital property on the corner of U.S. 93 South and East 13th Street with the prospect of converting the site into a four-year college or university campus.

Don DuBeau and Sam Baldridge of River Opportunity Project Enterprise plan to meet with community officials and advisers this week to discuss their options. DuBeau says they are still in the exploratory stages, but that the potential for the site as a college is “enormous.”

“Whitefish offers a destination setting for new undergraduate — and potentially graduate — degrees, which bring huge dividends to the economy and culture of any community,” DuBeau said.

The campus likely would not be a stand-alone college, DuBeau said. The developers hope to collaborate with other colleges and universities in the region, including Flathead Valley Community College, Montana State University and The University of Montana.

“We are exploring the possibility that Whitefish could become one of a new generation of college towns that are emerging from coast to coast,” DuBeau wrote in a letter to community officials.

“Whitefish could become the kind of college town that enjoys a collegiate learning and living environment that provides cultural, recreational and educational enrichment for the larger community.”

The Education Alliance, a higher education consulting firm out of Boston, will facilitate the community meetings.

The hospital site was left vacant when North Valley Hospital moved in 2007 to its current campus farther south.

The 12-acre site was purchased for $6.4 million that year by The Aspen Group, an Arizona-based investment and real estate development company. The firm had plans to build a resort-style residential development. The project was approved by the City Council in 2009 but the preliminary plat expired after the property went to the bank.

River Opportunity Project Enterprise bought the vacant and boarded-up building in September. DuBeau says the building will need to be gutted, but the shell is in good condition.

The hospital opened in 1971. It was expanded in 1974 and 1988.

The property extends to the Whitefish River to the east. Entrances are along U.S. 93 South and East 13th Street.

The city of Whitefish could assist with revitalization of the property by offering tax increment finance funds. City Manager Chuck Stearns said tax-increment money could be used for public infrastructure such as sidewalks, bike paths or extending water and sewer lines. City council members voted last year to make revitalization of the old hospital property one of their priority tax-increment projects.

DuBeau has ties to a number of development projects throughout Whitefish and on Big Mountain. He was involved in the development of the Viking Lodge in 1978.

DuBeau said the timing was right to purchase the old hospital property with an eye on redeveloping a key parcel of land in town. He said the effort to build a college there “is one of the most interesting and well-received ideas by the community for the old hospital site.”