The privately owned portion of the prime but long-dormant downtown Missoula real estate known as the Riverfront Triangle is for sale for a combined total asking price of $15.2 million for the three separate parcels.
This week, Sterling Commercial Real Estate Advisors of Missoula finally put big signs on the lots downtown at the intersection of Front Street and Orange Street near the Clark Fork River.
The city of Missoula owns the parcel with the uncovered asphalt parking lot closest to Orange Street south of Front, but the three surrounding parcels including one along the river are privately owned by Riverfront Triangle Partners LLC of Missoula.
The Riverfront Triangle at the corner of Orange and West Front streets in Missoula has sat nearly empty for 30 years.
“It’s been for sale for four years, we never had a sign on it though,” explained Matt Mellot, managing partner and commercial real estate adviser at Sterling. “We had it under contract three different times.”
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The deals fell through for various reasons.
“There’s plenty of interest,” Mellott said. “There’s a lot of serious interest. People recognize it’s a valuable piece of downtown riverfront property. It’s in an amazing location. But there’s a couple different factors there that make it complicated, like the topography and the fact that you’d have to get rid of an old parking structure.”
The total lot size of the three parcels is 222,262 square feet. The 2.56-acre “river’s edge” parcel is listed for $7.8 million, the .719-acre “north view” parcel is listed for $2.1 million and the 1.82-acre “west view” parcel is listed for $5.3 million.
Sterling put together a video, featuring aerial footage of the site, to go with its listing.
The area is zoned for high-density office, residential and retail with buildings up to 125 feet in height.
“Missoula’s Riverfront Triangle property is a rare opportunity in one of the west’s quickly growing cities,” Sterling’s listing states. “Zoned for mixed-use development, the five acre site can be used for high density office, retail, hospitality and residential. Situated at the entrance to Missoula’s well-curated downtown and on the banks of the Clark Fork River, the Riverfront Triangle features extraordinary mountain views. The property is just a half-mile from Interstate 90 and across the street from the region’s premier medical hub.”
The Riverfront Triangle, also sometimes called the Fox Site, is located within the city’s Riverfront Triangle Urban Renewal District, which means that developers are eligible to apply for Tax Increment Financing to help offset parts of a project that benefit the public.
In 2019, the city came to an agreement with local developers Nick and Robin Checota for a $100 million civic events center, hotel, housing, restaurants and a public plaza. The Checotas canceled those plans after the pandemic hit in 2020.
Sterling’s listing states that “extensive parking and site planning” for the site has been completed, and there’s an approved development agreement with the city if a developer wishes to revive the canceled plans.
The site hasn’t had much in the way of business activity since the Fox Theater was closed and the land donated to the city in 1984.
For decades, the city has been trying to lure a project that would use the parcel in a way that transforms downtown and greatly increases the city’s tax revenue.
David Erickson is the business reporter for the Missoulian.
