MISSOULA — Developer Nick Checota is expressing his excitement to get involved with the Riverfront Triangle project, saying the huge development is a major "opportunity" for Missoula's future.
It was announced on Monday that Checota, already known for his real estate past and his successful event and music promotion business, will ask the city for approval to take over the development rights from Hotel Fix Partnership.
"It's such an opportunity to help evolve downtown Missoula and to really transform how the river trail, and the river in general, interacts with downtown Missoula," Checota told MTN News. "And the beginning of that whole corridor, of which obviously the hospital has done a lot to develop the beginning of that whole corridor as you go up Broadway."
The Hotel Fox Partnership has been working for the past several years on plans for a new hotel at the Riverfront Triangle, the pie-shaped piece of property just west of Orange Street along the Clark Fork River. Over those years, the project has changed scope and design several times, especially after the City of Missoula asked that it include a "conference center".
More recently, the plans extended to include a larger project combining the hotel and conference center with restaurants, retail and attached residential space. But the death of one of the principle partners last winter forced the backers to re-group,getting city approval to explore additional investors earlier this year.
Now, Checota will step in, adding a civic events center, with hopes of starting construction as soon as next year, "there's just so many components in the venue side of the business and it just really gives me the opportunity and combine all of that into a pretty cool civic project for Missoula."
Prior to launching his current business, Logjam Presents, Checota had extensive experience in real estate development. The Riverfront Triangle presentation will be considered by the city council, and the Missoula Redevelopment Agency on Wednesday.
