Preliminary engineering report worries owners

By RICHARD HANNERS

Whitefish Pilot

Like the Rocky Mountain Chalet earlier this year, another piece of Big Mountain history is in danger of disappearing.

The owners of the Alpinglow Inn voted Sept. 12 to close the building — at least through this ski season — after a preliminary structural engineering study reported potential structural hazards.

The Alpinglow's prominent telephone pole-like supports are visible from the Birch parking lot.

Kalispell attorney Joe Bottomly, who owns a condominium unit there and represents the owners, said the concerns were old problems relating to age, degradation, snow-loading and earthquakes.

"The owners agreed to close down the inn for now and then appoint a committee to decide what to do next," he said. "It might be fine. We're not sure."

Bottomly said nearly all the owners of the 54 Alpinglow units voted in favor of closing after an emotional discussion about how to remain open for one more ski season.

"The majority agreed they could not expose tenants and employees to this risk," he said.

The options are to leave the building as it is, if additional inspections assure the owners it's safe, make any necessary repairs or tear the whole structure down and start over again.

The owners have about a month to clear out lockers, Bottomly said, and anyone who put down money for a room this winter will be reimbursed.

"We were booked heavily through the winter," Bottomly said.

The Alpinglow Inn is the first resort-type condominium in Montana history and the fourth to be registered with the Security and Exchange Commission as an investment security. The latter distinction wasn't planned, former Winter Sports Inc. CEO Norm Kurtz recalled.

With the passage of the Unit Ownership Act by the 1965 legislature, providing for condominium development in Montana, WSI management saw a way to get more lodging up on the mountain.

Kurtz began researching and visiting recreational condos in Oregon, on the Pacific Coast and in Hawaii. WSI turned to Kalispell attorney Cal Robinson to guide management through the legal hurdles and hired Seattle architect Charlie Morgan, Kurtz's long-time skiing friend, for a design.

The plan called for privately-owned rooms with common ownership of service, recreation and access areas, including a large dining area, saunas, an owners' lounge and a revolving exhibit of local artists.

Morgan turned to other successful ski resorts for ideas, especially the Crystal Mountain Ski Club in Washington. Local builder Don Collins was hired as the general contractor, and construction kicked off in 1968.

Kurtz had little trouble selling the condominiums until WSI got a letter from the SEC office in Seattle. He and John Coffee had broken the law by selling units to residents of Oregon and Washington, WSI learned. It wasn't enough that buyer and seller had exchanged money up on Big Mountain — Alpinglow Inn had to be registered with the SEC for interstate sales.

"Very few out-of-state people bought units," Kurtz said, "but we had to refund money to everyone who had purchased a unit — $441,000 worth."

Fortunately, everyone who bought a unit was more than happy to buy it back after they got their refund, he said.

By March 15, 1969, twenty-four of the 54 units were ready for rent. The "luxury rooms" were rented on a "construction rate basis," the Pilot reported at the time.

"The Alpinglow Inn owners were delighted that there was income for the building even before it was finished," Kurtz said.

Units sold for $9,951 apiece, complete with individual electric heat, private baths and wall-to-wall carpeting. WSI managed the inn for the owners, who typically reserved a few weeks a year for their own use.

Balanced on "stilts" against a hillside, some doubters suggested the building might collapse in the first earthquake, but Kurtz said Collins was a "good builder" who followed the rules "right to the letter." The building easily passed an insurance inspection, he said.

Not too long after the inn opened, an earthquake did hit the Big Moun-tain village, causing damage to the foundation of the east wing of WSI's lodge across the street — but the Alpinglow Inn was OK, with nothing bent or broken, Kurtz said.

"The building just sat there and wiggled her hips with no damage," Kurtz said in Jean Arthur's book "Hellroaring, Fifty Years on the Big Mountain."

Nearly four decades later, Kurtz still feels the same way.

"There's not a damn thing wrong with that building," he said. "It's probably the sturdiest building on the mountain."