Bozeman City Commission Approves Funding for Project Near Wild Crumb

By Nora Shelly, Chronicle Staff Writer

A $20.8 million project to drastically expand the building housing a popular Bozeman bakery is set to receive public investment.

The Wildlands project is planning to bring new commercial space and residences to the building housing Wild Crumb bakery and Fink’s Delicatessen at the corner of East Peach Street and North Wallace Avenue. The three-story addition would wrap around the existing building and would include a dozen residential units and some new commercial space.

Developer Eric Ladd, with Outlaw Partners, told the Chronicle in November that both Wild Crumb and Fink’s will be able to remain in their spaces.

City commissioners this week approved $583,445 in tax increment financing dollars to go toward the project.

David Fine, the city’s economic development program manager, said at this week’s commission meeting, said the project is an “extraordinarily” difficult one due to site and zoning constraints.

Redevelopment projects that area of town generally have more hurdles than most, Fine said.

“It’s a relatively low-density zoning designation with a very high cost of land, and a lot of infrastructure that needs to be remediated,” Fine said, “which is a big part of the reason for having a tax increment finance district there in the first place.”

The tax increment funds are from the Northeast Urban Renewal District. TIFs are not a new or additional tax, but come from a portion of tax dollars being diverted away from their original destinations to redevelopment funds.