Burns Street Square

Three great projects, one great neighborhood -- Burns Street Commons; Missoula Community Food Co-op; Shared-Use Community Kitchen-Cafe.

The North-Missoula Community Development Corporation announces the continuing development of Burns Street Square. The exciting and challenging Burns Street Square project, now entering the third stage of development, has the potential to bring great opportunities to neighborhood residents.

The Burns Street Center has come about after more than a decade of community assessments and neighborhood surveys. Currently, the center includes the Missoula Community Food Co-op and 17 affordable homes for income-qualified buyers. The third stage of the project, the community shared-use kitchen and cafe, is beginning now. With widespread community support and recent federal appropriations, we are on track to provide the Missoula community with a licensed facility for processing local and value-added foods. All of the land for these three great projects is part of a community land trust and a permanent commonwealth for Missoula. Click here to view the schematic site plan.

The 1500 Burns Street site is just south of the MRL tracks and just east of Russell Street. The surrounding neighborhood has a median household income more than seven thousand dollars less than the rest of Missoula. The incidence of households receiving public assistance is twice as high here as in the larger city.

The Burns Street Square constitutes a tremendous reinvestment in the old residential neighborhoods north of the Clark Fork River. The community center building will offer infrastructure for job training and increase access to good nutrition in the low-income neighborhood. A subsidized meal program will serve neighborhood kids. Beyond that, this community center is already on its way to bridging the gap between rural and urban Montana by providing a market for local farmers and ranchers - a place to share our regional harvest.

We've received help in developing our vision and purchasing the property from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the US Department of Agriculture (Community Food Projects Grant), the State of Montana, the City and County of Missoula, the Mission Mountain Market Cooperative Development Center, the Northwest Area Foundation and a number of local citizens. This year we were granted federal appropriations from Omnibus Bill 2009, which will help us get started on the kitchen and cafe. We're continuing to spread the word and we're asking you to help out. For more information about the project, our vision, or our partners, please contact us. Talk to us about setting up a time to visit the site and take a tour of the building.