The former Pacific Galleries building on 9th Street North is getting a new look and new tenants.

For months, there’s been activity at the building with demolition going on inside and painting going on outside.

Dan Bateman bought the building in December and said he’s making progress on fixing it up.

The Flippin’ Gym is going into a section of the building.

Becky Bean-Rammell said she’s expanding her Conrad gym with a Great Falls site and will offer gymnastics, karate, pre-school programs and more.

Their opening date is not firm yet, but Bean-Rammell said she’s confident they’ll be starting classes in the new gym in September and enrollment is now open.

The Sparkettes have also been using a portion of the building for practice since Bateman’s daughter is a member, he’s trying to work out a long-term deal with them.

There’s another 40,000 square foot section of the building Bateman said he’s hoping to lease, ideally to someone working with kids or offering activities for the community.

Pasta Montana is leasing a 25,000 square foot warehouse in the back of the building for storage, Bateman said.

The building sat vacant for five years and the Great Falls native said he’s hoping to revitalize the area but “it’s been a lot of work.”

He works for Pasta Montana and the company had been looking for storage space. Bateman talked to a real estate agent he knew from church who mentioned the Pacific Galleries building.

Pasta Montana didn’t want to buy it so Bateman asked if they’d lease space if he bought it, so he did.

“I’d just love to see Great Falls grow,” he said.

He’s been spending nights and weekends working on the building that had hundreds of internal walls left from the former antique mall.

All those walls have to come out and he had to remove quite a bit of junk that had been left by previous owners, he said.

Anyone interested in leasing space in the building can call Bateman at 403-8462.