Stockman Bank of Montana is buying the downtown Billings Gazette building, which bank leadership hopes will develop the surrounding area.
The bank’s chief information officer, Kevin Guenthner, says the bank does not have a final plan for the building, but he predicts it could house the bank's insurance wing. The building is across the street from Stockman’s downtown branch.
“We think it's a great location to put our insurance agency to headquarter that out, right? It's got a good walk, good presence, good traffic. It's right across from one of our branches, so it gives us a chance to bring some locality into a really important line of our business,” he said.
In a story posted Tuesday, the Gazette, which is owned by Iowa-based Lee Enterprises, said it will move its printing operations to Bozeman, which will eliminate 10 jobs. Reporting and advertising staff will remain in Billings.
The newspaper has used the building for its office and printing since 1968, and the bank plans to preserve the history of the North Broadway location.
“Obviously, we're going to make it functional," Guenthner said, "but the integrity, the character of the building, we think it's pretty cool, so we don't have any plans to dramatically change any of that.”
The change and likely increased foot traffic may help other downtown businesses.
Peter O’Brien, the owner of Spitz-- Mediterranean restaurant a block away from the Gazette building—hopes the transition will bring more business to the area.
“Having more neighbors is always great as a restaurant, and we'd love to see the rest of that block get developed,” O’Brien said.
Billings Gazette employees will relocate to a different office building in Billings. Until then, most of them will work remotely.
A sales price was not disclosed, and neither the bank nor the paper said when the Gazette will move out.
The sale of the building was first announced in 2021 at a listed price of $7.865 million.
