Belgrade, Big Sky or Livingston?? (Missoula, Great Falls: for sale, how much, modular homes)

[Hotelier]

I am looking at the same region with business in mind. I am looking at investing in a hotel and wondering if it is a good place to do so. Being from the East Coast, the business climate and locale are both unknown to me, at the same time the pristine beauty of the surroundings do appeal to me. However, I would certainly invite comments or input on the Livingston area to understand the business angle.

[MontanaGuy]

I'm very familiar with Livingston since my best friends are from there and I've been there many times. That would be my first pick of the towns mentioned but there are some things you should be aware of. It seems like it's quite windy there alot of the time and the road between Livingston and Bozeman can be bad during winter months. Of course it's all Interstate highway but it winds through a canyon and a good snowstorm makes it a little dangerous at times. But Livingston is also an attractive town and would be a nice place to live.

[JoeJoeMan]

Hey just wondering why you folks want to move here have lite on Montana ? Was it a book a movie ?
There are lots of beautiful places in this country. If you were to drive here from where ever you are coming from, you'd pass thru dozens of them, small, quaint communities, less drugs, less congested, better schools, and for sure cheaper property.
I know people who live in and around western MT and have BIG problems with their kids on drugs.
There is this image of Motanta that outsiders have of this state that really doesn't match the reality.
Some of the badest kids I knew grew up in bozeman, bad in the sense that they'd kick your teeth out for looking at them wrong. True story, I saw the guy spitting out his teeth.

[ladyflyfsh]

The biggest problem with that sort of business in a place like Livingston is the tourist crowd is so seasonal. Sure you get a few people passing through in the winter enroute to Yellowstone but for the most part, businesses like restaurants and hotels have a huge lull in the winter months so you need to be able to survive when there are no customers. Your locals are not going to come stay in your hotel in the winter so how will you make money?

Is there a local hotel in Livingston on the market or something? I only stay at the Murray when I'm spending the night over there. It's been around and open the longest as far as I know in that town.

Summer will bring lots of tourists. Between Yellowstone to the south and the Yellowstone River for fishing, the area gets pounded pretty hard. They also hold Federation of Fly Fishers conclaves there often which brings even more tourists to town and there is only a finite number of places for people to stay. So, you will be super busy all summer and taking naps all winter.

[grizzfan]

I was born, raised and educated in Livingston many decades ago and am familiar with Bozeman as well, so much so that I decided to attend the University of Montana in Missoula!!

Livingston and Bozeman have drastically changed in the last 30 years, Bozeman attracting light industry associated to some degree with a fine engineering program at Montana State. Then the development of Big Sky brought lots of $$$ to the Bozeman area together with assorted movie moguls and their associates.

Livingston, on the otherhand, remained a little more trendy and attracted other movie stars, noteably Peter Fonda, the Bridges and a couple of reclusive types. An old Northern Pacific railroad town, it had a colorful past as the original gateway to Yellowstone National Park and a heavy railroad worker content with signifigant ethnic communities within the small town. (My mother's family was from Yugoslavia). Over the years the railroad shops were closed and the town nearly died. Most of the old shops I remember were replaced with galleries and bars, although we always had lots of bars, there are now more! In the railroad days the city had a reputation for a burgeoning red-light district - don't know their status today.

I'd have to agree with some of the posts that tend to discourage a hotel business. Murray Hotel has actually been converted to condos, but you can rent a room just like it was a hotel, when the owners are not there, which is frequently. The Grawbow Hotel is in the process of being so converted. I can't recall if any other hotels are still standing. We I to invest in a Livingston business, it would be in an automatic car wash!!!

We have a little place near town that we use in the summer. It's all changed from the days of my boyhood, and I hardly know anyone anymore, but it's still a nice little town. The area south of Livingston, up the Paradise Valley is simply unmatched in its beauty.

Good luck!

[Reziac]

In the 1960s, Missoula was the hippie and pot capital of the entire west coast. I haven't been there since 1980 so have no idea what it's like now, but at that time it had largely cleaned up its act.

What people from elsewhere often don't get, is that Montana is effectively two states -- west and east of the divide, with different cultures, lifestyles, attitudes. The Hwy 93 corridor has always been kinda yuppie-ish, even before there were proper yuppies (Kalispell and Hamilton were the first places to get hit with that culture shock, back in the late 60s). The eastern part of the state is more cowboy country, wide open and relaxed and people live closer to the dirt that makes them a living. And the mining towns (Helena and Butte) still have a bit of the rough and tumble of the Gold Rush era -- a sort of living history. (BTW I grew up in Great Falls.)

"I drive Highway 93. Pray for me." -- Montana State Highway Patrol bumper sticker, ca. 1970

[decembergirl]

Well I did live in Glasgow, so I guess I can comment on it. When I was in high school a family moved in from down south and the father was a preacher. And what did my classmates do? It was a big race to see how fast they could get his teenage daughter drunk and de-flowered. And my family is in law enforcement there. The drug problems do exist.

[JoeJoeMan]

reziac wrote:

In the 1960s, Missoula was the hippie and pot capital of the entire west coast. I haven't been there since 1980 so have no idea what it's like now

They are still suffer the ill effects of too many dead brain cells. If you ever wonder what the side effects of blowing to much pot in your youth are, take a look at some of the solutions to street,pedestrian,traffic problems the city council and street department have come up with.
I noticed in the paper today yet another 'empowered' bicyclist has been killed, probably egged on by such city policies and attitudes that encourage bicyclist to get out there in the middle of very busy streets and mix it up with vehicles 100 times their weight, size and speed. It's really sad when you think about it. But such is the hippie pot induced mindset that engulfs the community.

[Bigwilld]

Its people like you who give us people in the bitterroot and missoula valleys a bad name, you shouldn't talk about a place like that especially if you havent visited in 27 years, dont make assumptions about what happens, if you want to be in the know then come and live here, Missoula has changed alot in 27 years and you have no clue about what goes on if you haven't visited in that time.

[GiftShoppeGuy]

Originally Posted by JoeJoeMan

reziac wrote:

They are still suffer the ill effects of too many dead brain cells. If you ever wonder what the side effects of blowing to much pot in your youth are, take a look at some of the solutions to street,pedestrian,traffic problems the city council and street department have come up with.
I noticed in the paper today yet another 'empowered' bicyclist has been killed, probably egged on by such city policies and attitudes that encourage bicyclist to get out there in the middle of very busy streets and mix it up with vehicles 100 times their weight, size and speed. It's really sad when you think about it. But such is the hippie pot induced mindset that engulfs the community.

And, as an added note........

We're working on a piece of legislation that may require those who like to "mix it up" with traffic on their bicycles, to get an endorsement on their drivers license for just such a thing... and, they won't have the same "no fault exclusions" that regular every day pedestrians have.....

Just a little something for those who feel "empowered" around here.