MISSOULA — In a special meeting on Wednesday, Missoula City Council approved an appeal for a demolition permit for the Old Post Hospital at Fort Missoula. Now, the developer for the property is one step closer to doing so.
“I think our process has some real flaws and I don't blame people for being frustrated with it,” Missoula City Council Member Mike Nugent said.
The developer, FAE Missoula Hospital, LLC — which largely has experience developing properties in Denver, originally bought the property that the Old Post Hospital resides on in 2019, and ever since then, its been trying to develop the property.
Devlopers originally had the plan to rehabilitate the property, but said that the cost was too large.
“When I saw the building and what the purchase price was, my intention was to buy the building and rehabilitate it as a standalone into an office building, which I knew the area was zoned for,” said Kenneth Wolf, manager of FAE Missoula Hospital, LLC. "And when we got into it, and we realized how much it was gonna cost to rehabilitate it, it made no economic sense. So that's when we tried to come up with an alternative."
The hospital was constructed in 1911 and was used as a hospital until 1947. After which, it was purchased to be a mental health facility in 1963. During the Old Post Hospital’s time as a mental health facility, the top two floors were sealed off due to extensive damage over the years.
The mental health facility ceased operations in the mid-2010s, and the property was put on the market in 2017 until the developer bought the property in 2019.
The issue arose when the developer determined the building was too damaged and that it would be better to demolish it as a whole, for which they applied for a demolition permit.
The body that reviews demolition permits for historic buildings is the Historic Preservation Commission, which ultimately decided to deny the demolition permit, stating the developer had neglected the building and did not make an adequate effort to explore rehabilitating the property.
“In its decision, the Historic Preservation Commission found FAE's evidence of reported economic hardship to be insufficient and not credible because the information provided pointed to evidence of self-created hardship,” said Elizabeth Johnson, Historic Preservation Officer for the City of Missoula.
The developer objected the HPC’s decision and appealed to city council, which voted 7-1 to approve the appeal.
In their discussions, council members expressed a desire to keep the Old Post Hospital intact and rehabilitated. The developer told the council that they would be willing to potentially redevelop the building, but with the appeal approval, the developer is legally allowed to move forward with the demolition process.
