Comfort Inn coming to Libby’s Kootenai Business Park

The rejuvenation of the Kootenai Business Park in Libby continued recently with the announcement that a Comfort Inn hotel will be built there.

As pollution cleanup work has been completed at the Superfund site, Comfort Inn & Suites, a subsidiary of Choice Hotels, is the latest business to join the growth at the 400-acre park.

Noble Investments’ Chris Noble and Tina Oliphant shared the news in a Feb. 7 interview with The Western News.

“This has been a real need for our community for quite some time,” Noble said. “It will bring in jobs and we believe it will spur further development in the park.”

The 80-room hotel in a multiple-floor story building will also feature a conference room where meetings can be held. Ground is scheduled to be broken around March 1.

Asbestos contamination and other pollution from a lumber mill owned by Stimson Lumber Company plagued the property for decades. The site was part of a lumber and plywood mill that treated wood on site from 1946 to 1969. Operating practices used at the time and the release of wood-treating fluids resulted in contamination of soil and groundwater.

But cleanup work led by the federal Environmental Protection Agency has removed more than a million cubic yards of asbestos-contaminated waste. Maintenance activities are ongoing and Operating Unit 5 was partially deleted from the list in August 2024.

Noble Investments bought 107 acres in the business park in 2024.

It touted the public-private partnership that allowed the project to become a reality.

“Noble Investments spent money to do an engineering study for the new street entrance,” Oliphant said. “The Lincoln County Port Authority got a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

“This was about the right people discussing the future, looking 15 years down the road,” Oliphant said.

“The work being done with local developers means there is a lot more care being put into this,” Noble said. “We’ve removed 12,000 yards of concrete and completely recycled it. Some of it we’ve been able to use at this site.”

The hotel is slated to join a handful of other businesses that have put down stakes in the park, including Nomad Global Communication Solutions, United Parcel Service, Federal Express, Clark’s Courts and others.

Libby City Administrator Sam Sikes feels the work being done in the Business Park will help the infrastructure and set the stage for businesses that may follow Comfort Inn.

“It will provide a north access to the Port area and improve the vehicular access,” Sikes said. “We’re using upgraded pipes to make sure the water mains are safe in that plume area.

“I think the question is now, ‘What comes on the heels of the hotel.’ It will be interesting to see.”

Sikes said the city is rebuilding Spruce Street with State-Local Infrastructure Partnership (SLIPA) Program money. It is a state-funded program to help cities and towns fund the maintenance/repair of local government facilities on a partnership basis, with local governments supplying a cash match.

The businesses near the highway will be served by city utilities, according to Oliphant.

"We're thrilled to see the development of the Comfort Inn and the new street infrastructure at the park,” Nomad co-founder Clay Binford said. “As Nomad continues to expand in Libby, it's exciting to witness other businesses recognizing the potential that Lincoln County has to offer. The additional road and business infrastructure at the park only strengthens our confidence that we made the right choice by investing in this community."

Oliphant, who worked as the executive director of the Port Authority for several years before joining Noble Investments a few years ago, said it’s the first structure of its size to be built in city limits in about 45 years.

“There has not been any significant development (2-3 acres) since the late 1970s with available access to city utilities (no need to build out). Yes – there has been further out of town, but no city services had to be extended,” Oliphant said.

The business park has had its share of misfortune in the past, including short stays by Stinger Welding and Isotex, a hemp producer.

Arizona-based Stinger Welding, a bridge and expansion joint fabricator, arrived in 2009, got $3.4 million from the county, $5.7 million from the Montana Department of Commerce, $17 million in a federal financing program and built a 100,000 square foot building that some said employed as many as 104 people.

But the success was short lived. 

Stinger CEO Carl Douglas was killed in a plane crash near Libby in December 2012. A Feb. 8, 2013, story in the Daily Inter Lake reported Stinger employees had trouble cashing payroll checks as well as tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills to the Port Authority and local businesses. Stinger declared bankruptcy in 2013 with $5.8 million in debt.

The next tenant was Texas-based hemp producer Isotex Health from the fall of 2019 to early 2020 before questionable business dealings derailed the startup company.

Kootenai Tec, which owned the Stinger building, accused Isotex of failing to make timely interest payments on a $7 million loan facilitated by Kootenai Tec, court documents said. Isotex was also accused of failing to properly document improvements to the site and mishandled the loaned money, court documents said.

In 2024, four men involved with Isotex Health were charged with running a Ponzi scheme and defrauding investors, farmers and the state of Montana of more than $6 million.

Later, an effort to bring a fiberboard factory to the location in 2021 fell flat when the legal troubles of Corey Bitton, the man tapped to run the plant, came to light. In 2007, Bitton pleaded guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud and aiding and abetting in a Washington state federal court. The charges stemmed from Bitton’s management of a restaurant and catering business he owned in Pasco, Washington.

But Noble and Oliphant are hopeful the property’s misfortunes are behind it.

“We care for this community and all the stakeholders who are involved,” Oliphant said. “Comfort Inn’s presence will allow us to market the property more.

“It’s been well received by the city and county and it will be a major increase in the tax rolls,” she said.

Locals have already seen the removal of several trees from along U.S. 2 at the entrance of the two-acre parcel where the hotel will be located.

Noble said a power line going into the business park will be relocated underground and the new street will be paved this summer. He also said the street will be curbed and street lights installed.

“There’s not a lot of space to build such a structure in Libby and with it being in the U.S. 2 Highway corridor, it makes it more attractive,” Oliphant said. “Also, having a brand name there provides more confidence to other businesses that may consider moving in.”

Developers believe the location is ideal for travelers because other places where lodging is available is far from Libby.

One structure that won’t remain in the park is the Central Maintenance Building. It’s been in the process of being torn down during the last few weeks.

While IRS Environmental cleaned up vermiculite-containing insulation that had leaked from the walls in the building on separate occasions in May and June of 2003, Noble determined the facility was too rotted to salvage.

“We feel bad about the Central Building, but it sits in a low spot where there are drainage issues and the walls and foundation are rotted to the point where it can’t be saved,” Noble said.

The lower portion of the building will remain for about a year because tenants are still using it. But eventually, it will be removed.

A new street will also be built in the park to help accommodate the new development and provide a connection to Spruce Street on the other side.

Dawson Mill Road will run through the Timberlands Park Subdivision, providing a connector from Industry Way to Spruce Street.

The naming of the new road is a nod to the Dawson Lumber Company’s saw mill that was built in 1906. It provided jobs for about 100 people and spurred economic development in the area. In 1911, J. Neils and Associates bought the Dawson Lumber Mill and it was later named the Libby Lumber Company. 

New sewer and water mains will also be part of the development. The sewer main will be 15 inches and the water line will be 12 inches.

“That will also serve south Libby for future economic growth in the area,” Noble said.

Noble said it will take a year to build the new hotel.

“Some of the work will be done by local contractors where it is possible,” he said. “Byron O’Bleness Construction is doing the frame work, for instance, and local sheet rockers will also be involved.”

In addition, Federal Express will be moving its operations to the old Noble concrete plant.