Preview: Real Estate & Development in the Northern Rockies

Rick Wishcamper on Sustainable Development in the Rockies

By Anne Medley, 10-20-07

At first glance, Rick Wishcamper’s background looks a bit scattered—a bachelor’s degree in human ecology, a master’s in business and an MFA in poetry don’t readily combine into one clear career path. Yet this founding partner and President of the Rocky Mountain Development Group in Missoula has always known his passion. 

“I have always been an outdoorsman and an environmentalist,” Wishcamper said. 

After teaching business classes at the college level, Wishcamper co-founded the Rocky Mountain Development Group in 2003 with fellow University of Montana alum Justin Metcalf. 

Since then, Wishcamper has focused on “taking something older and underutilized and repositioning it through capital to make it more efficient and productive.” Such “adaptive re-use projects” include the historic Sons of Norway building in Kalispell, which formerly hosted occasional meetings but which, until recently, sat vacant the majority of the time. 

Through a collaborative effort with the city of Kalispell and the Downtown Redevelopment District, the building now boasts full-sized windows on the lower level, 9,462 square feet of space spanning two floors and on-site, city-leased parking.

Closer to home, the Rocky Mountain Development Group has purchased the historic Wilma Theater and will be renovating the building to include condominiums as well as a revived restaurant in the basement and various exterior restorations.

Rick Wishcamper will speak as part of a panel on development and sustainability during NewWest.Net’s second annual Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies conference in Missoula next weekend.

Click here, or on the logo above, to register for the conference.

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