The Whole Foods planned for 3333 Brooks St. is expected to open in April 2028, but the southside starts changing well before that. Great Burn Brewing has until the end of this year in its McDonald Avenue taproom. The Brooks Street Motor Inn is closing. The most visible piece of the project, a new grocery anchor and a public plaza, is roughly 18 months away even on the developer's own schedule. For anyone who lives between Southgate Mall and the Midtown blocks to the north, the next year and a half means losing familiar places before anything new shows up.
The calendar runs backward on Brooks Street
The Missoula Midtown Association announced the project, called Midtown Market, in an Oct. 2 Facebook post. It was formally presented at the association's monthly mixer a few days later, according to Montana Free Press. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to the outlet that Whole Foods is one of the anchor tenants and said there was "no additional information to share at this time." If the project goes ahead as planned, it would be the second Whole Foods in Montana, after the Bozeman store that opened in 2023.
The project team's press release, reported by the Missoulian, says construction is expected to start next year, which means 2027. Delivery is projected for April 2028. Montana Free Press also reports that the start date depends on funding approval for what the release calls "public enhancements."
Here is the order of events on the corner, based on what has been published so far:
- Oct. 23, 2026: The Missoula Redevelopment Agency board is expected to consider the developer's request for tax increment financing.
- Dec. 31, 2026: Great Burn Brewing's last scheduled day in its current taproom.
- Date not announced: The Brooks Street Motor Inn closes.
- 2027: Construction is expected to begin, depending on the funding decision.
- April 2028: Projected delivery of Midtown Market.
Nothing new opens on the site until the last item on the list.
What leaves first
Great Burn Brewing opened in 2014. It was only the fifth brewery in Missoula at the time, and it was founded by brothers Greg and Mike Howard together with business partners and family members. The brewery put out a statement on social media, as NBC Montana reported, saying the Midtown Market development means it has to find a new home. The Missoulian quoted the statement directly:
"Our beloved taproom will be turned into a parking lot for the Midtown Market Development."
The site plans show a large parking lot running from Brooks Street back to McDonald Avenue, where Great Burn's building is. The owners said they want to stay in the midtown/southside area. They called the search "a daunting task" because there aren't many good spaces for a brewery nearby, and they said they're already assessing one space. The statement also described the taproom as "a community hub for the southside."
The food trucks that park at the brewery will need new spots too. No published report lists which trucks use that lot regularly. Other local businesses responded publicly. Wally and Buck wrote that it hoped "this town can pitch in and help find you the perfect home." Sonny's Original, a cheesesteak truck, said it had enjoyed working with the brewery at that location many times.
The developer's release says the Brooks Street Motor Inn "is closing" and that the developers are working with Great Burn on a relocation strategy. No closing date for the Inn has been published. The project would remove both the Inn and the Great Burn building, plus some smaller buildings on the site.
October 23 is the one public date in the middle
The site is a commercial building in a commercial zoning district, so the city's communications director, Ginny Merriam, told Montana Free Press that it only needs a building permit to proceed. As of that reporting, the city had not received any permit applications. That leaves the public funding request as the one decision on the timeline that happens in a public meeting.
Developer Brook McDonald has applied to the Missoula Redevelopment Agency for tax increment financing to cover public infrastructure. The release lists deconstruction of the existing buildings, building the plaza, new sewer connections, relocating electric utilities, and boulevard sidewalks with street trees and pedestrian-scale lighting. Montana Free Press notes that this kind of funding can pay for sidewalks, trees and water or sewer work, but not for commercial buildings. The amount of the request has not been disclosed.
The city says it has no involvement in the project. It also says that approval from the MRA would require a relocation plan for displaced businesses, according to the Missoulian. If the request is approved, the infrastructure money and a plan for displaced businesses would go together. At a City Council meeting, Mayor Andrea Davis responded to comments asking the city to block the sale. "We literally cannot do that, and I don't think you want government doing that," she said, as Montana Free Press reported. She added that the property owner, listed online as Larsen Investments, had been trying to sell for "a long time now," and that the Missoula Economic Partnership had contacted Great Burn to help it find a new location.
What the plans actually put on the corner
According to the release, these items are proposed for the 3333 Brooks St. site:
- A 9,000-square-foot public plaza described as a community gathering space
- Three buildings with retail, restaurant and service spaces from about 1,200 to about 4,500 square feet
- Right-of-way improvements along the Brooks Street corridor
- Whole Foods Market as the anchor
The size of the Whole Foods store itself has not been published. The suite sizes have also changed between reports. An earlier Missoula Current report gave retail spaces of 1,300 to 6,000 square feet, and the later release gives roughly 1,200 to 4,500. The smaller range points toward cafe-sized and service tenants more than big-box neighbors. Connor McMahon of Sterling Commercial Real Estate Advisors told the Missoulian that national brands and local businesses have both shown interest. He said Missoula's retail vacancy "has been under 4% with very little new product under construction."
The release also puts traffic on Brooks Street at about 21,700 vehicles per day. If fully leased, the project is expected to support about 125 construction jobs and around 150 permanent jobs across its tenants. The project team includes the civil engineering firm IMEG, Encompass Design and Dick Anderson Construction.
The blocks around it are already moving
Midtown Market sits just south of the Midtown Commons housing development near Southgate Mall. Midtown Commons is further along. The city's Engage Missoula project page shows City Council approving the purchase-sale and development agreements on May 18, 2026, and the project entering construction on July 31, 2026. The plans include a 1.6-acre public park, connections to the Bitterroot Trail, and new streets, sidewalks, lighting and landscaping. Montana Free Press reports that Midtown Commons developer Chris Kemmerly told City Council in May that a grocery store was being built a couple of blocks away.
Both projects are linked to the 2023 Midtown Master Plan, which the Midtown Association cited when it announced Midtown Market. For the Southgate Triangle, the plan describes an upgraded Southgate Mall area with amenities, places to live and work, active ground-floor storefronts, and safer connections for walking and biking. It is a vision document written in June 2023, not a list of finished projects. Midtown Market is one of the first private projects to claim it out loud. "Projects like Midtown Market will help create the vibrant, walkable neighborhood we envision for the future of Midtown," association vice president Jessica Yandell said in the release.
Transit could change on Brooks Street too. A Brooks bus rapid transit study, covered by Missoula Current, presented a final design with a curbside bus lane, 10 stops, bus-priority intersections and a pedestrian median. The route would end at a southern transit station on the Southgate Crossing property. The study says more work remains, and no construction schedule has been published.
Dates to keep this fall and winter
- Oct. 23: The MRA board is expected to consider the infrastructure financing request. The city says approval would require a relocation plan for displaced businesses.
- Through Dec. 31: Great Burn Brewing is open at its current location. The owners said they need "a few strong months of sales" before they close this chapter.
- Any day now: Watch for Great Burn's announcement of a new southside address and word on where the food trucks will go.
- Whenever permits come in: As of early October the city had no permit applications for the project. The city says planning documents become public once they're approved.
If you own a home near Brooks Street, a 2028 grocery anchor, a new 1.6-acre park and corridor changes are all part of your block's next few years. Ashley Inglis follows Midtown's projects as they move from announcement to construction and can walk you through how they may affect your property. Get in touch with Ashley for a personalized market consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
