The site for the proposed federal building and courthouse is NOT downtown, as many folks predicted; instead, it will be located on the west shore of the Missouri River, just north of the Central Avenue bridge. As near as I can tell, that will put it right about here:
Hmmm…not bad, but 3rd Street NW is going to get REALLY hellish during State Fair season. What do you think of the proposed location – good, bad, indifferent?
I think it will help to develop the West Bank, and that will be a good thing.
But, I’d like to know how one will get back downtown from the Courthouse. It will be a real pain.
I think that it is a good thing for the West side. It creates a number of winners and losers. The winners are the property owners on 3rd St. NW and Central Avenue West.
The losers, unfortunately, are all the small business owners on Central Avenue and 1st Avenue North. There are a lot of small restaurants on Central that will now lose a lot of business.
It also represents a blow to all of the investment we have made as a community to the streetscape on Central.
Any idea how many jobs will now leave the downtown?
It will be great to replace the present eyesore on that property with a nice building. It will be interesting to see what kind of traffic plan they come up with. Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t a developer propose building building a motel on that property awhile back but shelved the idea when the State wouldn’t grant any eastbound access from Central West to the site?
Will this spell the end of “Cowboy’s Museum & Bar?” (Considered by Travel Montana to be “an integral part of Montana’s past.”) Maybe “past” is the operative term, but I have the fondest memory of a girl who not only showed me her “Rockin’LF” brand on the wall there, but also what it represented.
Doman;
That is only the latest hotel/motel that was proposed for that location. Previous owners had been pushing to develop that area for hotels, restaurants, casinos, etc. for at least the past three decades.
The Ol’ Sheriff – I think the Cowboys will let lawyers in!