Hotel opens in former assisted-living center

Greenwood Village Inn and Suites, a Western-themed hotel highlighted with log pillars, elk antlers and bison-leather chairs, opened earlier this month in the former Greenwood Village Assisted Living center in Kalispell.

Owner Dennis Rasmussen, a Kalispell resident for 75 years, said he is more than happy with the final product and the amenities found inside his new hotel.

“We really went above and beyond what people really needed,” he said.

Rasmussen owned and operated Greenwood Village Assisted Living for 17 years, but closed the facility April 1. The center’s 30 elderly and disabled residents were relocated as Rasmussen made plans to convert the building into a hotel.

“I wanted to back out of it to get into something that doesn’t need as many employees,” he said. “Everyone that comes in is not sick, no medication, no care plans. Doing medical assistance for the elderly is intense.

“This is a lot more laid back and that’s one of the main reasons why we did it. And there’s plenty of places that absorbed the people we had.”

Rasmussen now has seven employees instead of 17. Four of the assisted-living employees carried over in the transition.

Four families have already stayed at the hotel since it opened in early August. Rasmussen said as soon as the website is available to online travel searches such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, business should see an uptick, making his investment worthwhile.

Rasmussen also owns and operates the adjacent Greenwood Village mobile home park and campground.

The new hotel offers a comfortable environment. Keys still hang on the wall behind the front counter, part of the Old West decor.

Against the back wall of the front office, an old ice-cream freezer, complete with pictures of ice cream cones and Popsicles and a sliding glass door, contains nearly half of a bison in steaks, sausage and hamburger meat for sale. He said many items in the continental breakfast will include high-quality sausage made of bison or elk.

“We served 150 meals a day for 40 years,” Rasmussen said. “We have a perfectly functioning kitchen ready for guests.”

In addition to the hotel, mobile home and RV park, Rasmussen owns a bison and elk farm where he has harvested the meat for nearly four decades.

Rasmussen purchased and installed new beds, carpets and 40-inch televisions in all 47 rooms.

Guest rooms come in three sizes: two-bed master suites, single-bed room suites and studios, each available in green, red or brown.

“I designed the hotel to look like a lodge,” Rasmussen said. “Travelers want it to feel like a home.”

The hotel conversion cost upward of $200,000, according to Rasmussen. The biggest cost was the fleet of new king- and queen-sized memory-foam mattresses found in each room.

The cafeteria of the former assisted-living center has become an open dining hall, encircled with bison, elk and moose heads lining the walls above. An ebony piano sits in the corner next to a small kitchenette where musicians used to entertain the residents.

As summer winds down, Rasmussen looks forward to tourists visiting Glacier Park in the fall and Whitefish Mountain Resort in the winter. Rasmussen said he plans to advertise positions for the kitchen and night crew as the business grows.

For more information on rates, booking and bison meat, visit www.greenwoodvillageinn.com or call 257-7719.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com