Trader Joe's Coming to Bozeman? What's Up with the Gibson's Building?

What's happening with the old Gibson's building at the corner of Main, Babcock, and 23rd?

The stenciled "For Sale" sign is gone, and Dollar Spree, the building's one longtime tenant , has announced (via a hand-painted sign) its retirement.  Could big changes be coming for this eye-sore of a location? Over the years, there have been various rumors that Trader Joe's had bought the property. 

The Bozeman community development website doesn't have anything listed for the property, and I did a web search to see if I could find out more but it revealed nothing. There was a 2004 Bozeman Daily Chronicle article about the building (https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/gibsons-property-could-see-redevelopment/article_2864d779-0303-527e-ac68-c127b2d9442e.html ), which said changes were coming. Apparently, at that point, the 48,000 square foot building had been vacant for two years. Dollar Spree eventually moved in but the property has been largely underutilized ever since. 

So we wait and see what will happen to this location. Will Bozeman soon be home to a Trader Joe's? Will something else move in? Will that something else be useful to a wide cross-section of the community offering a convenient neighborhood service or will it be another mid-rise building? Perhaps it will be repurposed and as with many other commercial developments in Bozeman a real estate agent, an accountant, and a cell phone store will move in? Or worse, will the building sit empty for years and fall into ruin suffering the same fate as the City Center Inn?

No matter what happens to the Gibson's building, people will have opinions about it and many will be convinced it's another sign that Bozeman is "ruined." This will be one more thing people will be "up-in-arms" about; something else to speak out against and protest. 

I'd like to believe this large space will be transformed for the benefit of the community and filled with useful neighborhood services. I hope that what ever changes are coming, if any, will  allow for the El Rodeo taco bus (Reviewed here: http://annvinciguerra.blogspot.com/2019/06/el-rodeo-taco-bus.html) and the Gallatin Valley Garden Center to stay. But with so much development happening so quickly in Bozeman, and so much of it billed as "luxury," I am cynical that anything good will become of the location. 

The Bozeman Gentrification Saga continues...

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• Read more about Bozeman http://annvinciguerra.blogspot.com/search/label/Bozeman and mid-town Bozeman http://annvinciguerra.blogspot.com/search/label/Midtown%20Bozeman
• Paradise Ruined: http://annvinciguerra.blogspot.com/2017/01/paradise-ruined.html
• Bozeman Alley Tour: http://annvinciguerra.blogspot.com/2017/07/bozeman-alley-tour.html
• Bozeman Graffiti Wars: http://annvinciguerra.blogspot.com/2017/10/bozeman-graffiti-wars.html