Eleven months after a natural-gas explosion blew a hole in downtown Bozeman’s streetscape, two local businessmen have drafted plans for a building that will fill more than half of the void.
Ralph Ferraro and Mike Hope have submitted a proposal to the city to build a two- or three-story structure at 209 to 219 E. Main St., which they have dubbed the “F&H Building.”
The structure would house the Rockin’ R Bar, Pickle Barrel and a newcomer to downtown -- Santa Fe Red’s.
It would occupy the spaces where the Rockin’ R, Pickle Barrel and Boodles restaurant building and the Montana Trails Gallery building once stood. Boodles and the gallery have moved into new locations on East Main Street.
Santa Fe Red’s would be on the west side of the new building. The Rockin’ R, with Pickle Barrel inside, would be to the east. Both the second floor and a third floor -- if funding allows -- would provide office space.
Jerry Locati, of Locati Architects, the firm that designed the brick, stone and steel structure, said it would have balconies on the second floor and roll-back doors on the main floor, which would allow the bar and restaurant to open up the front wall to the sidewalk during warmer months.
“It’ll add a lot of life to downtown,” said Locati, whose other projects include the Montana Ale Works building on East Main and Moonlight Basin’s ski lodge in Big Sky.
The March 5 explosion leveled half of the 200 block of Main Street, destroying four buildings and killing one woman. The crater left by the explosion would be mostly filled in by the F&H Building and the new American Legion building, at 225 E. Main St. The only space left would be between the two, where the LillyLu children’s store was before the blast.
SANTA FE REDS
Santa Fe Red’s owner Jared Bratsky said he plans to rent space in the F&H Building to expand his business beyond his current clientele.
“We’ll be trying some new things on Main Street,” he said.
The original Santa Fe Red’s restaurant on North Seventh Avenue opened in 1994 and is “more family oriented,” he said. There is also a Santa Fe Red’s in Billings.
The downtown restaurant “will be a bit more upscale” and cater to the younger, late-night crowd, Bratsky said.
Plans call for serving food, from a menu that Bratsky wants to expand beyond Mexican fare, to people in the Rockin’ R after Pickle Barrel sandwich shop closes around dinner time until 2 a.m. or later.
Bratsky estimated the restaurant would employ about 80 people. It would occupy the space once held by the Rockin’ R, Pickle Barrel and Boodles and plans include eventually creating a space in the basement for larger groups.
Bratsky said he’s not sure exactly what he’ll call the new restaurant, possibly “Santa Fe Red’s Downtown.”
Specifics are still being worked out, he said, but people can expect “some exciting surprises.”
ROCKIN’ R BAR
The new Rockin R, meanwhile, would be built in the space that once held Montana Trails Gallery and part of Boodles restaurant, said Hope, the Rockin’ R’s vice president of operations.
The new bar would be slightly bigger than the old one and “have more of a Montana feel to it and a couple of the concepts from the original,” Hope said.
He said one memento from the original -- the goalpost that Bobcat fans tore down when the football team defeated the University of Montana Grizzlies in 2005 - is sure to be restored.
“The goal post will definitely be back in the bar and hopefully we’ll have a new one,” Hope said. “We’d like a collection of goalposts.”
Though it was a bit burnt and beat up, the goalpost was salvaged from the rubble left after the explosion.
The Pickle Barrel will again serve sandwiches out of the Rockin’ R, but unlike before, it will offer breakfast.
“We’re going to open early and do breakfast sandwiches,” Ken Olson, who owns the shop with his wife, Kerry, said. “There’s no place downtown just to grab a breakfast sandwich or something that’s affordable rather than a higher priced meal.”
FLAGSHIP PROJECT
Hope said the businesses would like to reopen by March 2011.
“If everything goes right, we’ll break ground around the first part of June this year,” he said.
Chris Saunders, interim city planning director, said there’s nothing in the proposal that immediately sticks out as being a stumbling block.
Whether the building contains a third floor depends on whether Hope and Ferraro can get federal funding earmarked for reconstruction of the blast site, Hope said. Hope and Ferraro declined to attach a dollar figure to the overall project.
The F&H Building’s exterior was designed to fit with the historic buildings downtown, Locati said. But the interior will have a modern feel.
Locati called the F&H Building a “flagship” project for the architecture firm.
“It’s an opportunity to take a bad situation that happened to Bozeman and turn it into a blessing,” he said.
Amanda Ricker can be reached at aricker@dailychronicle.com or 582-2628.
