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MALL SLATED FOR MONTANA TO BE STATE’S BIGGEST

BY LEE KESSLER

It wasn’t the big sky of Montana that lured Wolford Development to Kalispell, a city of 14,000, where it plans to build the state’s biggest mall. It was the people.

Kalispell, the seat of Flathead County, is nestled in a Rocky Mountain valley in the northwest corner of the state, about 195 miles northwest of Helena, the capital. Since 1990, Flathead’s population has grown some 24 percent a year, a trend that is not losing much momentum; the Montana Department of Labor and Industry predicts a 16 percent annual population growth through 2010. People are moving to Montana. The county currently boasts about 76,270 residents, according to the 2000 census.

To serve this growing population, Wolford, based in Chattanooga, Tenn., plans to build Glacier Mall, a $150 million, enclosed regional mall with 700,000 square feet of retail on a 274-acre parcel on the outskirts of the city. That will make it the state’s largest mall, surpassing the 621,000-square-foot Rimrock Mall, in Billings, 465 miles to the southeast.

Nearly 52,000 people live within 10 miles of the Glacier Mall project, and the average annual household income is $48,843, according to the 2001 census. The developer calculates that the market is underserved. The existing Kalispell Center Mall, downtown, is “landlocked,” says Clint Wolford, the Glacier project manager. “They built a mall that cannot be expanded; it’s too small,” he said. “So that’s created the demand to build a project like ours.”

Kalispell anchor Herberger’s (owned by Saks), for one, is ready to act upon that assessment. It will close its two 25,000-square-foot spaces to take over a single 100,000-square-foot site at Glacier. Dillard’s has signed on as anchor too, with a 98,000-square-foot space. Wolford Development is in discussions with other national retailers.

To clear the way for the development, Flathead County commissioners voted unanimously in February to rezone the land for general business use. Opponents have challenged that decision in court.

“What’s [the mall] going to do to the downtown?” said B.J. Carlson, a 16-year Kalispell resident and a member of the anti-mall group Let the People Vote, told SCT.

Anticipating a favorable outcome, Wolford Development could begin construction as early as next spring. That is welcome news to many local residents, including

Joseph Unterreiner, president of the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce.

“The Glacier Mall project furthers our development as a regional trade center,” said Unterreiner. “Retail is one of the features that people look for in having a well-rounded economy.” The project will create roughly 1,400 jobs and generate about $2.4 million in annual property taxes, according to Wolford.

Clint Wolford’s father, James L. (Bucky) Wolford, a founding member of Chattanooga-based CBL & Associates, established Wolford Development in 1999.

“The m.o. that he developed is that you go into a ‘B’ market and you build a project that is large enough that you’ve got control of the market for the next 30 or 40 years,” said Clint Wolford. “We didn’t go to Montana to say, ‘Hey, we built the biggest mall.’ We want to build a project that can sustain itself for a long time. That’s the real point.”

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