All three Missoula County commissioners this week signed a counteroffer to sell the Lennox Hotel property next to the Missoula County Courthouse to Women's Opportunity & Resource Development Inc., or WORD. The three-story building on Broadway now houses the county's pre-release center.
The county agreed to sell the building for $300,000, assuming some construction and environmental inspections don't turn up any serious problems for WORD. The original list price was $330,000, but real estate agents working for the county said they were surprised any offer came close. One bid from a group of attorneys came in at $50,000.
WORD plans to turn the first floor into a mixed-use commercial area and remodel the upper floors as apartments, according to Ren Essene, who heads the "homeWORD" affordable housing project of WORD.
However, lots of research needs to be done before any design is accepted. Essene said the deal is contingent on marketing and other surveys that will show how the building can best be used.
"We're interested because it meets a lot of our goals," Essene said.
The homeWORD project particularly likes to reuse existing buildings, especially when there is a historic aspect involved, such as the Lennox, she said. The building's nearness to the main Mountain Line bus transfer site and downtown shopping is another advantage, she said.
If the project goes together, homeWORD has some federal grant money to help buy the building. It would probably require local fund-raising efforts to complete the project, which isn't expected to begin in earnest before 2000. The county's pre-release center lease doesn't expire until 1999, Essene said.