A developer said Thursday that Sportsman's Warehouse has backed out of his planned $26.5 million "Cornerstone Plaza" on Harrison Avenue in Butte. But besides a Planet Fitness, Dave Leon still didn't say publicly what national chains will be part of the plaza.
"So far we've been able to line up some unusual, high-profile national tenants," Leon said by phone, telling the board that oversees the South Harrison Avenue Urban Renewal District that he has seven so far. "We've had huge interest from some giant nationals — I'll just say home improvement national stores, actually all of them," he said. "And we've actually had some large, very large, the largest grocery stores have been to our site two to three times.
" Leon announced in October 2023 that he was bringing a Planet Fitness to Butte as part of a "synergy plaza" with 11 "big national tenants" of stores and restaurants — the kind seen in Helena, Missoula and Bozeman but not here. Major dirt work has been done on a sprawling site near Bert Mooney Airport but Leon still hasn't said what other stores and restaurants are coming. He wants lease agreements in place before naming them, he said.
"It hasn't been easy, you know, because it's like herding cats to get all these tenants together on time," he said. "I'll relinquish all their names in a very short period of time." But he did mention Sportsman's Warehouse.
"We had one setback where we had an executed lease with a large national anchor store that is struggling and they u.