Holiday Inn back again on walking mall

Once a Travelodge, then the Park Plaza, then the Holiday Inn Downtown and then the Park Plaza again, the five-story hotel at the south end of Downtown is once again a Holiday Inn.

The Holiday Inn Conference Center Downtown debuted nearly two weeks ago, after another round of renovations last winter and spring. The hotel's 71 rooms got new decor and bedding along with flat-screen televisions. The restaurant is now the Quarry Bar & Grille, which bills itself as "Helena's ultimate sports bar."

The building is owned by Dick Anderson and Ed Maronick, while the hotel is managed by Missoula-based Lambert Hotels. Roger Chandler, previously manager of the Silver Star Steak Co., is the hotel's general manager.

Holiday Inn is a brand of Intercontinental Hotels Group.

BMC still here: Building Materials Holdling Group, the Boise-based parent company of professional building supply chain BMC West, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week in Idaho.

The company's stores will all stay open through the proceeding though -- and that includes the Helena BMC West on

Hwy. 12 East.

"It's business as usual," said Steve Robertson, the local manager and a 22-year veteran with the company. "Our employees are safe, our vendors are safe. It's a restructuring of our balance sheet."

According to an account in the Idaho Statesman, the company has lined up $80 million from Wells Fargo and other lenders, but the money must first be approved by bankruptcy court.

Locally, Robertson acknowledged business these days isn't what it was a couple of years ago, but a "summer bump" in business is helping some, and that the construction industry in Montana remains stronger than in many other parts of the country.

"We're just following national trends. We're playing catch-up like everyone else is," he said. "This has probably been a good trimming of the fat for us."

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