The Daily Inter Lake

Valley Bank didn't think the Kalispell City Council liked Plan A in a long-gestating proposal to swap downtown parking lots.

So it offered a Plan B in the nine-month-old negotiations.

On Monday, council members said they preferred Plan A, and hoped to convince Valley Bank's board of directors to go back to the original proposed deal.

The council hopes to complete these talks within a few weeks.

The issue is that Valley Bank, 41 W. Third St., wants to swap a parking area that it owns at the corner of Third Street and First Avenue West for the city-owned parking lot at the corner of Third and Main streets. Valley Bank wants to build a new $2.5 million to $3 million bank building at the corner of Main and Third streets, and then demolish its current building to create another parking lot.

This plan - in one form or another - has been around for at least 10 years.

Ron Rosenberg, Valley Bank president, and City Manager Jim Patrick briefed the council during a Monday workshop session on the status of those negotiations, which have been under way since May 2006.

The original proposal was for Valley Bank to swap 28,000 square feet of parking space for the city's 17,500 square feet of space.

The holdup was that Valley Bank wanted to hang on to 15 parking spaces in those 28,000 square feet for its customers. The city government - including some council members on September 2006 - was reluctant to reserve those 15 spaces.

So recently, Valley Bank offered to swap five-eighths of its 28,000 square feet - which would be 17,500 square feet - for the city's 17,500 square feet. Then the bank would pay the city the difference in the appraised values of the two parking areas. Both sides expect that the value of the city's land on Main Street to be greater than the bank's land one block away from Main Street.

The city hopes to eventually build a multi-level parking garage on the First Avenue West site - though no financial sources have yet been identified and no designs have been drawn up.

On Monday, several council members said the two sides should go back to the original proposed swap of the bank's 28,000 square feet for the city's 17,500 square feet - with the bank being reserved 15 spaces in the future city parking lot. Some council members also suggested that the bank should receive 15 spaces in a new city parking garage - if and when it is built.

Council members and Rosenberg said that the bank has been a downtown fixture for several decades, and it allows non-bank-related drivers to park in its current parking lot. Consequently, some council members thought Valley Bank deserved a break, and they wanted to keep it in the downtown as a draw for other central Kalispell businesses.

Patrick is scheduled to take the council's latest stance to the Valley Bank's Board this week. The council hopes to discuss the bank's reply within the next two weeks.

The area of the current bank building is roughly 8,000 square feet.

The area of the new building likely would be from 10,000 to 15,000 square feet. The final size will depend partly on whether the bank ends up with one story and a basement, or two stories and a basement. Valley Bank's final designs and construction plan are on hold until the parking-lot swap is resolved.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com.