NeighborWorks Great Falls‘ permanent supportive housing project is nearing completion.

NWGF partnered with Homeword, out of Missoula, and local firm BSPARK Architecture to turn the Baatz building, built in 1913 at 400 2nd St. S. into permanent supportive housing units and a community services center on the main floor.

Sherrie Arey, NWGF director, said during a March event that they’re planning a grand opening for June.

She said that they saw strong community services working with homeless and housing issues in Great Falls, but knew those individuals would be better if they could get into housing, so they started working with Homeword.

They’re working to bring back as much historic detail as possible to the building’s exterior and using historic tax credits.

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Last winter, the City Commission voted to support an application to place the Baatz building on the National Register of Historic Places.

In February 2024, the Montana Historic Preservation Review Board nominated the Baatz and four other properties for inclusion on the national register.

“To say that the Baatz Block experienced a colorful past proves an understatement,” Montana State Historic Preservation Office National Register Coordinator John Boughton and Homeword’s Julie Stiteler wrote in the 2024 nominating document. “Not long after the completion of the Baatz Block, several businesses, predominantly the hotel and bar, garnered law enforcement attention for liquor violations and solicitation, a trend that dogged the businesses and some residents of the building for years. Within months of the building’s opening, the Great Falls Tribune reported the arrest of three gentlemen in a gambling raid in the Baatz Saloon. This incident served merely as a harbinger to a myriad of unwanted attention focused upon the building.”

City supports historic designation for Baatz building [2024]

In March 2024, the Baatz building was added to the national register.

“We’re bringing back a building, bringing it back to life” and bringing it purpose, Arey said in March. “If these walls could talk. It really was and is a beautiful building.”

According to the local city-county Historic Preservation Advisory Commission, Nick Baatz built the building in 1913 after emigrating from Luxembourg at 19 and settling in Great Falls.

It’s where he and his wife, Maria, ran a hotel in the upper floors while the main floor housed a drug store, Nick’s offices, and a cabaret, as well as short and long-term lodging to working-class people in Great Falls through the 2010s, according to HPAC.

Baatz Building cleanup getting started, construction planned for fall [2023]

The Baatz project is one of this year’s local Historic Preservation Awards that will be honored during a May 10 event at 1 p.m. in the Celtic Cowboy Dark Horse Hall.

The building with a colorful history will now be permanent supportive housing with services on the first floor. Opportunities Inc. will be coordinating those services with other local agencies, she said.

Those service providers wanted to be available in one place to be more accessible to those in need, she said.

The first floor will also include a classroom, laundry, officers, community kitchen, food pantry, entrance desk and more.

Baatz is the second such project in Montana using the tax credits and third in the state of its kind, she said.

Construction loosely started in September 2023, but began in earnest in the spring of 2024.

City approves $2.15 million in federal funds for Baatz project [2023]

The project has a funding mix of loca, state and federal funding.

The city approved federal HOME and local tax increment financing funds toward the project and Cascade County awarded ARPA funds toward the $13 million project.

The 25-apartments will have full kitchens and be a mix of studio, one- and two-bedrooms.

The building will have a controlled entrance and strict rules and expectations for residents.

NWGF receives $6.1 million in low income housing tax credits for Baatz Building renovation [2021]

Some who have been homeless and are moved into Baatz will have folks try to take advantage or stay with them, but that won’t be allowed and since those are the rules, it makes NWGF the bad guy, lessening stress on residents, Arey said.

The apartments will be fully furnished and Arey said the community can support the project through their wish list of items like linens, pots and pans, food pantry items, books, games and more.

Arey said leasing should start in July and residents will pay rent, but with the assistance of housing authority vouchers and their rent will be based on what they can pay, Arey said.