Troubled community building now for sale

HAVRE, Mont. – Community efforts to make a downtown landmark into a business and cultural center have failed and the building, which houses a museum now moving to a shopping mall, is for sale.

The Heritage Center, built as a post office between 1930 and 1932, could stand empty this winter if a bidder is not found.

City officials plan to open sealed bids Oct. 27 and had none as of Friday.

The city bought the building in 1996 with financial help from a Montana Department of Transportation program and agreed to repay that agency if the building became privately owned.

An official for the department said it will not try to collect its full $170,000 if the building sells for less than that.

“It’s not our intention to force the city into … financial hardship,” said Mick Johnson, a Transportation Department administrator.

Tenants displaced from the 21,875-square-foot building include Hill County’s H. Earl Clack Museum, which was closing Saturday to prepare for a move into Havre’s Holiday Village Mall.

Others forced out include a dance studio, a counseling office, a property management company, a financial adviser and an animal welfare group.

“We tried to make that building a place that was alive again,” said Elaine Morse, president of the H. Earl Clack Foundation, which operated the building.

The city bought the Heritage Center when the U.S. Postal Service moved elsewhere in 1995. Late Mayor Phyllis Leonard helped lead the effort, fearing the building with Greek columns, brick and marble would be sold for scrap.

In 1996, the city reached agreement with the H. Earl Clack Foundation, created to support the county-owned museum.

The foundation wanted to operate the building and house the museum there, but couldn’t afford the $150,000 price.

The city, eligible for help through the Transportation Department, agreed to buy the building and lease it to the foundation with the understanding that local tax dollars would not be used for support.

Community interest had surged and so the Clack Foundation felt that it could rent enough space in the building to operate it in the black, Morse said.

But few of the groups that expressed interest moved in, and within a few years, major tenants Bear Paw Development Corp. and the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce moved out.

Meanwhile, state officials required costly code upgrades for fire escapes, and bathrooms accessible to people with handicaps.

Altogether, nearly half a million dollars was spent to operate and upgrade the building over the past eight years, Morse said.