Helena Mall??? (Custer: Home Depot, per square foot, quality of life)

[AQHA]

There have been rumors about a new Helena mall over there by Home Depot-- I know the museum they were talking about is now in question so maybe they will just rebuild the old mall... anybody know anything?

There's also talk of a new gym over in that area-- anybody know if that is going to happen?

[mthawki]

There had been a rumor of a new mall being built if the Historical Society bought the current mall. But that plan seems pretty much dead now. A new mall would sure be nice since the current mall is pretty much a joke. I guess time will tell.

[pray4fire]

Originally Posted by mthawki

But that plan seems pretty much dead now. .

So does the old mall!

[sweetinmt]

Don't care much for malls but I heard the same rumors. There is a sign up near the new Costco that talks about a new shopping center but don't know what will go in there. This new building boom with all the new stores is a little overwhelming if not scary because it points to the ever expanding population in Helena and also the increase in traffic (ugh_). Guess time will tell if the "new Mall" will be built.

[rjinmt/mobilelogistics.mt]

if you go on i-15 north toward lincoln road before home depot there is a small bulletin board for the new mall where you would not guess on it being

[Reziac]

Over the long haul, malls raise prices (it costs about 10 times as much per square foot to have a store in the mall, vs. in downtown) and kill small independent merchants. I count malls as the threshold after which quality of life in a given city goes downhill.

[mthawki]

rjinmt,

Would you care to elaborate a little more on what this bulletin board says? Is it just one of those rezoning signs that the city/county puts up prior to a meeting? Most of the commercial building in Helena is soooo slow right now that I don't see any chance of a new mall happening until after the Custer Interchange is in and that's not going to be until after 2011 or 2012. Just look how slow the development is around Home Depot and the new area called Custer Landing across from Lowe's. Developers put these things in and there is absolutely nothing going on.