Ray Thompson, owner and developer of the Sykes’ complex in Kalispell, wrapped up the luxury apartments in June just in time to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary in the main building with his wife Ladeine and 400 guests.

Freshly back from an anniversary cruise that followed the party, Thompson said he looks forward to seeing the public’s response to the apartments.

“I feel very good about it,” he said.

Thompson, founder of Semitool, purchased the Sykes’ property in 2010 from longtime owners Doug and Judy Wise after selling his technology company to Applied Materials. The historic restaurant and grocery store on Second Avenue West had opened and closed several times in the months before he decided to buy, preserve and upgrade it as a kind of personal mission.

“This was never my hangout, but I respect everybody that this was their hangout,” he said in an interview at the time. “It’s the best of Kalispell.”

He said the project was something he could do for the community work force that made Semitool so successful.

Over almost two years, Thompson remodeled and expanded the restaurant, demolished the back half of the building and built a new grocery/deli, conference room and 12 apartments. He also built a parking garage with two apartments on Third Street and renovated a separate building that houses a barber shop and artist studio.

Asked about his investment, he called it substantial.

“I don’t really have it totaled yet,” Thompson said. “As a business man, it’s more than I should have. In some respects, it’s a debt paid. Hopefully, it’s useful.”

According to Thompson, the restaurant centerpiece continues to do well and he expects all the businesses to operate in the black. With the complex complete, he has no immediate new plans for the Sykes’ property except to “watch and see as the apartments” get rented.

Some of Thompson’s favorite parts of the project design were the geothermal heating/cooling and the many high-tech amenities such as the television built into mirrors. He continues working in the technology industry with businesses he purchased in Los Angeles and England.

His British business is developing a new way to increase the output of solar technology.

“If we’re successful — and we’re not yet — with the increase in efficiency that we’re looking at and hoping for, it’s very significant,” he said.

Thompson said he likes innovating technology as well as applying the end product as he has at the Sykes’ project. Thompson said he has enjoyed being reconnected to his hometown and hopes the apartments attract people who want to live in town, convenient to the restaurant, market and other downtown amenities.

“I hope this will be well-received by people wanting to be in town and have access to the market and restaurant and other businesses,” he said. “I’m just hoping we get the right mix. I’m not looking for old people, young people — I’m looking for really nice people. Good people.”