The Grain & Timber opened its doors Monday at 1402 North 7th Avenue, occupying the footprint where Bridger Valley Feed & Seed served ranchers and backyard chicken keepers since 1964. The four-story building contains thirty-two residential units above 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. A climbing gym and a cold-pressed juice concept have signed leases for the commercial space.

Monthly rents for the residential units range from $2,800 for a studio to $4,200 for a two-bedroom. The developer, Cascadia Peak Properties, markets the apartments as “workforce housing adjacent to downtown amenities.” The property sits three blocks from the MSU campus and two blocks from the nearest bus stop, which runs every forty minutes on weekdays.

“We’re delivering a product the market has been asking for,” said Brett Holcombe, principal at Cascadia Peak, reached at 406-555-0187. “The finishes are high-end but not ostentatious. Quartz countertops, in-unit laundry, bike storage. People want to live where they can walk to a decent IPA.”

Marlene Dobbs, who bought her house on South Tracy in 1998 for $87,000, stood on the sidewalk watching a moving truck unload a Peloton into a third-floor unit. “My grandson drives forty minutes from Belgrade to work construction on these buildings,” she said. “He lives with three roommates in a house that rents for more than my mortgage ever was. He says the view from the roof deck is nice, though.”

The building replaces a single-story cinderblock structure with a hand-painted sign that read “Chicks Arrive Tuesdays.” That sign is now mounted inside the climbing gym’s lobby, next to a neon logo that reads “SEND IT.” The feed store’s final owner, Earl Higgins, sold the parcel for $3.2 million in October 2024. He retired to Phillipsburg.

The first residents move in Saturday. The juice concept opens next month.