BOZEMAN, MT — Whole Foods Market is coming to Bozeman, making it the first Whole Foods to come to the entire state of Montana.
And the Gallatin Valley Mall will be its new home but it is only the start of a much larger project.
If you’ve driven by the Gallatin Valley Mall, you’ve seen the work going on here and this is, in fact, Phase One, and that means bringing Whole Foods to Bozeman.
“Whole Foods is the keystone, if you will, of a new redevelopment project at the mall,” says John Morrow, managing partner of the Gallatin Valley Mall, on a Zoom video call with MTN’s Cody Boyer.
The building that once housed Fuddruckers next to Petco is gone.
The area now is part of one of the largest facelifts that the 365,000 square-foot Gallatin Valley Mall has ever seen.
“Our mall has become a little bit more of a mainstream destination for the community and we want to I guess bring in the types of retailers and create an environment that’s a little more like downtown,” Morrow says.
And that video interview Morrow is set to the background of construction noise.
Why?
We talked from the future site of Whole Foods.
“There will be a parking area between and then off to the east right next to the main entry of the mall, we’ll create a roundabout,” Morrow says. “In the 23 years that we’ve owned this mall, Bozeman has had a fairly steady amount of growth and many of the consumers that move into the market, they’re moving to Montana to kind of get away from what they might have experienced in their hometown environment.”
That’s right: a new roundabout.
And that’s just the beginning.
“On that roundabout, we’ll have a building that will have more retail spaces in it,” Morrow says.
Morrow says three other businesses have already expressed interest.
“Portions of the mall that you see right now that are indoors will kind of get turned inside-out. We’ll still have a strong component of indoor retail,” Morrow says.
Morrow says the mall hopes this will bring shoppers back to town who have since gone elsewhere for their shopping wants and needs.
So these renderings, Morrow says it’s the tip of a bigger iceberg.
“We want to grow with the community and we want to do it in a manner that respects what the community wants and fits in what the community needs,” Morrow says.
As for Whole Foods, it should start construction this spring.
