City OK's yoga studio for commercial space

Pending negotiations of a lease contract, the eastside commercial space inside the city’s parking structure should be buzzing with a new tenant soon.

Whitefish City Council last week approved Yoga Hive as the tenant to fill the remaining space in the first floor of the parking garage. SOBBACYCLE was approved last summer to lease the western half of the commercial space.

Mollie Busby, owner of Yoga Hive, is looking to relocate her business to the space inside the parking structure attached to City Hall.

The Yoga Hive, currently on Central Avenue, also includes studios in Columbia Falls and Kalispell.

The lease is for a five-year term and is at a rate of $18 per square foot plus the cost of property taxes, and includes a potential five-year extension. Busby has requested the city cover the cost of sound minimization between the two spaces, applying the cost of polishing the concrete floors to her choice of flooring and the cost of the HVAC system to be installed inside the space.

Busby said the yoga studio doesn’t require total silence, but felt some kind of sound barrier between the two spaces is necessary. “Our focus is on bringing people together,” she said. “I think there will be great synergy with the current tenant.”

A rough estimate for the cost of the HVAC system is $9,000, City Manager Adam Hammatt noted and suggested that cost be paid by the Yoga Hive.

Busby said she would like the city to cover the cost of the HVAC system.

“I’m not going to take the duct work with me,” she said. “That $9,000 would be a deal breaker.”

Council approved Yoga Hive for the space pending a final lease agreement to be negotiated by Hammatt. Council directed Hammatt to negotiate the lease and look at the viability of doing a “cost share” agreement for the HVAC system for the space.

“We wish to extend an olive branch to the tenant on the issue,” Mayor John Muhlfeld noted.