On Tuesday, May 26, the collaboration between the Downtown Billings Partnership and the owner of the Stillwater Building was terminated by Billings City Council.
In the initial agreement, the Downtown Billings Partnership required that at least 50% of the Stillwater building to be private, requiring the owners, WC Commercial, to pay property tax on the building. After buying the building in 2018, WC Commercial applied for $1.5 million in tax increment financing to help develop the building. Currently, one floor of the building is occupied by Yellowstone County's administration offices.
Last year, WC Commercial took steps to sell three more floors to Billings as its new City Hall and Municipal Court. This would have made 80% of the building public property and, making the building exempt from property tax, violating the development agreement WC Commercial had with the Downtown Billings Partnership.
Despite negotiations, Chris Kukulski, the city administrator, and Katie Easton, CEO of the DBA, expressed that no progress was made towards coming up with a new agreement.
"We've not been able to come to an agreement," Kukulski said according to BillingsGazette.com. "We need to move on."
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