BUTTE — Corey and Kristi Markovich are the new owners of a historic building in Butte – one that was heavily damaged in a devastating fire last year.
“Yeah, we closed on the building on St. Patrick’s Day, kind of a symbolic gesture, if you’re going to do something crazy in Uptown Butte there’s no better day to do it than St. Paddy’s Day,” said Corey Markovich.
Known as the Times Building at Main and Galena streets, the building lost its roof and was practically gutted in a fire in January of 2020 that put wiped out three businesses housed there. The Markovichs want to rebuild it and put it on the market again.
“And the last thing Butte needs at the corner of Main Street is another parking lot,” said Markovich.
Corey, who owns Markovich Construction in Butte, said he has experience restoring other historic buildings in Butte. His wife, who works in real estate, is confident they can lease space in the building once it’s restored.
“Lots of interest in Butte right now, we have a lot of buyers from Bozeman, a lot from Missoula, tons of out-of-staters, there’s a buzz in Butte right now for sure,” said Kristi Markovich.
As you can see, this fire did a lot of damage to this building and it’s going to take a long time to get this building fully restored, but the Markovichs say it’s worth all the effort.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do to get a roof back on to it, we got to get through permitting with the county, we got to get through abatement, it’s by no means a fast-track project, we’re going to take out time and work through doing it right,” said Corey Markovich.
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