By Tyler Allen Explore Big Sky Senior Editor
BIG SKY – Big Sky Town Center is undergoing a serious facelift this summer. Backhoes are moving mountains of dirt around the Bozeman Deaconess hospital site, Roxy’s grocery store is slated to open in October, and the TNG Tower is swiftly nearing completion at the entrance of Ousel Falls Road.
The 10,000-square-foot building – designed by Bechtle Architects and being built by Rotherham Construction – will include three commercial spaces on the ground floor and four apartments on the second, according to TNG Development Manager John Romney.
Creighton Block Contemporary Gallery, Christie’s Pure West Real Estate and Fercho & Elliott will move into the commercial spaces when construction is completed in November. The four residential units in the TNG tower are all spoken for, Romney said, and will rent for $1,100-$1,500.
“It’s not going to solve the employee housing needs we have [in Big Sky], but it’s great for young professionals coming to Big Sky, or here already,” he said. “It fills a definite need in the residential housing market… it’s a step in the right direction.”
This is will be Romney’s third of four buildings planned for Town Center, after the Lone Peak Cinema building and 32 Town Center, where East Slope Outfitters occupies much of the ground floor.
“It’s going to be a great looking building,” Romney said. “I think it’s going to really enhance the look and feel of Town Center.”
The TNG Tower is designed to complement the RJS building – where Grizzly Outfitters and this newspaper’s office are – across Ousel Falls Road, Romney said. He’ll start construction in spring 2015 on the fourth building, east of East Slope Outdoors on Town Center Avenue, and expects it to be the first three-story structure in Town Center, including three commercial spaces and eight apartments.
While Creighton Block and Christie’s Pure West are moving from their current Town Center locations, Fercho & Elliott will be the new kid in town, come November. Kira Fercho is an up and coming artist from Billings and the space will feature her paintings as well as Lori Elliott’s interior design business, including home furnishing accessories.
“It’s useful for us to have the gallery spaces right across the street from each other,” said Creighton Block Gallery owner Colin Mathews, who opened his original gallery space on Lone Peak Drive in December 2010. “Art galleries are like automobile dealerships, they often prosper when they’re clustered in one space,” he added. Mathew’s contemporary gallery will be in close proximity to Fercho & Elliott, Gallatin River Gallery and Creighton Block’s original location.
“It’s [also] useful for me to have a higher end real estate business next door,” Mathews said, referring to Christie’s Pure West. “Because I sell art to people with large homes.”
Romney also has a residential project going up on south end of Town Center further up Ousel Falls Road, with his business Home Run, LLC. Cottonwood Crossing, which broke ground in June, will include 20 two-bedroom units also slated for completion in November.
The 1,500-square-foot units will be split among seven buildings – each with its own attached garage – and will rent for $1,600-$1,700 a month. Designed by Michael Pentecost’s Bozeman-based Dzyn2 Architects and also built by Rotherham, the properties will be managed under yearlong leases by Go Big Rentals.
“We’re on the verge of a boom [in Big Sky],” Romney told this newspaper last July. It seems he was right.
“I would say it’s not on the verge [anymore], we’re on the beginning of a boom.”
