MISSOULA — It's a prime piece of property right along the Clark Fork River and Hip Strip in Missoula.
Over the years, the former Missoulian site has been embroiled in controversy as a former Utah-based project investor was indicted on money laundering charges.
However, now, the Higgins Waterfront project is moving beyond its past complications.
"The proximity to everything that Missoula has to offer, and then, the icing on the cake is the river views," developer and former Griz player Cole Bergquist said.
Watch to learn more about the project from developer Cole Bergquist:
What was previously the Missoulian on Higgins and 4th has sat empty for a few years now.
"This is one of the last pillars of downtown that's kind of underutilized. It's been vacant and hasn't been used for the past couple of years," Bergquist said.
The river and downtown access are why Bergquist wants to transform the area.
He's been working on this project for years, through some challenges.
"About eight months ago, the milestone became finding new partners, and then it was getting the new partners bought in and the old partners bought out, and that was a super heavy lift," Bergquist detailed.
Now, he finds the latest design and team to be making headway.
"There's going to be two buildings, they're equal-sized buildings. One of them is going to be a hotel with retail, restaurants, and a rooftop bar. The other one is going to be residences," Bergquist told MTN.
View the project renderings below:
As for the affordability of the 80 residences, townhomes, and penthouses, prices haven't been finalized yet.
"Affordability is definitely an important issue," Bergquist stated. "It's really hard to make things pencil right now, especially with construction prices and the cost of borrowing money, but these are market rate units. We're gonna find a group of people that can afford this; if otherwise, you know, our project fails," he continued.
Bergquist plans for a park spanning from the development to the Milwaukee Trail.
"If you take a good look at our site, there's a ditch that runs through it. On the north side of that ditch, which is closer to the river, that's all been zoned open park or open space," Bergquist explained.
Bergquist notes there will be two floors of underground parking totaling 260 spots.
"One floor will go to the residences, one floor will go to the hotel and retail and restaurants," he said.
Pending permitting and approval from the City of Missoula, Bergquist hopes to break ground in the spring of 2026.
"We've been working on this project for so long and I've had so much experience and different engineers and contractors and designers that have been involved, that we think we finally nailed this current concept," Bergquist said.
"It's really important to me to do right by the city," he added.
