As NBC Montana reported, the Cleveland Building sat empty for almost forty years. Built in 1916 on East Galena Street, it spent most of the twentieth century as a Leskovar family car dealership, then just sat there through the eighties, nineties, and 2000s while Uptown Butte cycled through its long stretch of boarded windows and for-lease signs. Last September, after three years of construction, it reopened as the Cleveland Market. Same building. Same brick. Six tenants inside instead of a showroom floor.
The Cleveland Market's reopening and the district's formation are two developments shaping Uptown Butte.
What moved into forty years of vacancy
Walk into the Cleveland Market today and you'll find The Local, a market deli that started as a food truck and a small kitchen out at the industrial park before owner Katie Flint got a permanent Uptown address with a beer and wine license attached. Next to it is the relocated Dancing Rainbow Natural Grocery, a Black Dog Creamery ice cream counter, a leatherworking studio called Work in Progress run by Gilmore McLean, a gift shop named Something About February, and a vintage and home goods store called El Camino Collective.
Building owner Carly Leskovar, whose family has held the property since 1957, had tenants committed to spaces two years before the doors opened. "This building has been in my family since 1957," Carly Leskovar told NBC Montana. The soft opening was timed to coincide with the Butte Food Truck Festival, so the first crowd through the door was already Uptown for something else.
That's the pattern worth noticing. The fill-in of Uptown's empty storefronts has been happening building owner by building owner, tenant by tenant, well ahead of any coordinated push to make it happen.
The district's early priorities
Butte spent years as the largest city in Montana without a business improvement district. That changed after a petition drive crossed the 60 percent threshold of Uptown property owners in 2024, county commissioners approved the district that winter, and a seven-member board (Shanna Adams, Azhar Bougary, Michael Potts, Jeff Riggs, Maisie Sulser, Matthew Stajcar, and Cassie Wick) was formally seated last September. The district covers roughly 249 parcels between Silver Street and Copper Street, and Washington Street and Arizona Street, and it's expected to generate around $220,000 a year for the neighborhood.
Here's where the district's actual priority list stood as of its April 2026 public forum:
| Priority raised at the forum | Status |
|---|---|
| Additional trash cans Uptown | Board voted to buy 10, plus 10 more from county storage |
| Sidewalk lighting | Identified as a concern, not yet funded |
| Greenery near Taco Bell Cantina bench area and the Broadway/Main parking lot | Idea stage |
| Wayfinding signage and a visitor kiosk | Funded through a $50,000 state Department of Commerce grant |
| Façade improvements, pop-up shop space, Sunday business hours | Floated by attendees, no action yet |
Snow removal, lighting, and trash pickup are the unglamorous plumbing that makes a commercial district function, and somebody has to do it. The institutional effort to revive Uptown is working through its startup list, while the Cleveland Market has been open since last September with six operating businesses inside it.
New and relocated Uptown businesses
The Cleveland Market isn't the only sign that owners are moving toward Uptown rather than away from it. Butte Copper Company relocated its shop from Harrison Avenue to West Granite Street, trading a commercial strip for a block of brick storefronts. Co-owner Jailee Coyne has talked about the shift in terms of foot traffic and character rather than square footage, noting how much has opened around her new location in a short span.
Then there's The Copper Plate, opened by Krista and Vinay in the historic district. Krista grew up in Butte, graduated from Butte High, and spent more than sixteen years working for Disney before coming home. Chef Vinay, originally from Mumbai, brought eighteen years of culinary background with him. The menu blends American traditional food with Indian flavor, which is not a combination Uptown Butte has had before, and it exists because two people specifically chose to build something in this neighborhood rather than somewhere else.
None of these are large investments by national standards. A market deli, a leather shop, a relocated retailer, a family-run restaurant. Together on a few blocks of Uptown, these businesses add to the district's changing mix of storefronts, alongside the district's work on its priorities.
Weekly fixtures in Uptown
Uptown Butte has two weekly fixtures that predate the BID and operate independently of it.
Music on Main happens every Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. on North Main Street between Park and Broadway, running this year from July 2 through a September 3 season closer. That final show is a fan's choice format, where the audience votes on which of the year's bands gets one more turn on stage. The series is sponsored by Clearwater Credit Union and Butte Auto, with grant support from the Town Pump Charitable Foundation and the Superfund Advisory and Redevelopment Trust Authority, and it's organized independent of the district's own funding.
The Butte Farmers Market runs Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. through October 10 on West Park Street, between Park and Main and the Phoenix Building on Dakota Street. It's produce, cut flowers, plants, and Montana-made crafts, and it's been a Saturday morning fixture long enough that most Uptown regulars build their weekend around it without thinking about it.
Both events take place independently of the district's wayfinding kiosk and predate the BID. They are part of Uptown's social infrastructure.
What this means if you already live here
Uptown Butte is filling back in as individual people, a building owner who inherited a family property, a chef who moved home, a shop owner who packed up and moved a few blocks north, decide to bet on these specific blocks. The district exists now and is working through its priorities. The six storefronts inside a building that sat empty for forty years and the Thursday night crowd on Main Street are part of Uptown Butte's momentum this year.
Next time you're walking past the Cleveland Building or catching a set at Music on Main, you're seeing Uptown's momentum in its storefronts and gathering places.
If you're keeping an eye on what's happening in this neighborhood for reasons beyond a Thursday night out, whether that's a property you already own here or one you've been watching from a distance, Dayle Stahl knows this stretch of Montana block by block. Get a Free Home Valuation and find out what a piece of this changing neighborhood is actually worth right now.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
