The Columbia Falls Community Market Is Done for the Year. The Field It Sits On Is Still an Open Question.
The Columbia Falls Community Market held its final Thursday of 2026 on Sept. 24 at 165 Veteran Drive, with Tim Sandman on the schedule. Seventeen days earlier, the market's deadline to buy the 3.5 acres it sits on came and went. All of the coverage we could find ran before that deadline, and none of it reports how things turned out.
That gap matters more than the season ending. The market's numbers show a weekly gathering that grew big fast on a piece of land it rents. The rest of Columbia Falls' calendar between now and spring is a string of single dates.
Hungry Horse News editor Chris Peterson reported the market's figures for the first 14 weeks of the 2026 season, which ran May 14 through Sept. 24. These are interim numbers. No final season total has been published.
| Measure, first 14 weeks of 2026 | Figure |
|---|---|
| Attendance | 24,926 people |
| Average traffic | More than 593 people per hour |
| Vendors | 108 |
| Combined vendor earnings | More than $502,000 |
| Local nonprofits featured | 16 |
| Musical performers | 13 |
The market runs from 5 to 8 p.m., so 14 weeks comes to about 42 hours of open time. That works out to almost 600 people an hour on a weekday evening. The recycling program adds to the total. Since it began in 2025 it has collected 12,160 pounds and raised $3,750 for local nonprofits.
Most of that money doesn't stay with the market. Executive Director Melissa Ellis told the Flathead Beacon that rent on the site runs about $11,000 a year. The big white tent over the seating and stage costs $20,000, and the parking lot adds about $750, plus insurance and portable toilets. Vendors pay 5% of their sales, which makes up 30% of the market's income. Ten major partners and 20 local businesses cover most of the rest.
"At the end of the season after all our bills are paid, the market doesn't make a substantial amount of money," Ellis said.
The comparison behind the land question comes straight from those figures. The asking price was $1.1 million. At about $11,000 a year, that equals roughly a century of current rent.
The market moved to the green space beside St. Richard Catholic Church in 2024. It leases the land from the Boys and Girls Club, and the lease runs through December 2030. In August, the club relisted the property at $1.1 million and received a full-price offer. The lease gives the market a right of first refusal, meaning it could buy the land on the same terms. Its deadline to use that right was Sept. 7.
The market's own statement called the club "an extraordinary partner to the Market — generous, supportive, and deeply invested in its success." The same release covered what happens if the purchase fell short. The new ownership had agreed to give the market "either a secured lease or a meaningful investment in the market before the property is transferred." Any money raised would still go to the nonprofit.
Hungry Horse News, the Daily Inter Lake, the Flathead Beacon and KPAX all covered the campaign in the last week of August. We found no follow-up from any of them saying whether the market exercised its right, whether the outside sale closed, or who the buyer is. The online fundraising page shows $0 toward its goal. That counter is not a full tally, because the market also took donations through accounts at Freedom Bank, Stockman Bank and Park Side Credit Union. The city's September agendas give no answer either. The Sept. 8 and Sept. 21 council meetings and the Sept. 10 planning commission meeting listed no annexation, zoning or subdivision item for the parcel.
The market's website still lists only the 2026 season and no 2027 dates.
The Thursday market began in spring 2015 at The Co-op, where the Rendezvous now operates. It moved to Veteran Drive in 2024. Ellis said the board has looked at other sites. Marantette Park ran into parking limits. School property is ruled out because the market has a beer and wine garden.
So the market needs open ground, enough parking, and a site where alcohol is allowed, all close to town. In 2026, Veteran Drive met all three. The market has also sublet the field for other events, including a Park Side Credit Union family day, and it pays extra fees each time. Owning the land would remove those fees. Ellis described what the board had in mind:
"We would love to open that space up and allow people to do public events there. It really just depends on what the community would want to do and how we can build on that, but we would love to keep it a green space for the community."
Vendors talked about the field in terms of having a fixed spot every week. Kelly Lundie, co-owner of the Wild Child Food Truck, has parked at the market for four years. "Having a place every Thursday May through September where people know they can find us is huge for a small business like ours," she told the Beacon. Riley Koppes of My Thai To Go said the market has been a "core part" of keeping the truck running since it opened in 2017. He called it "one of the very few things that Columbia Falls has to offer for locals, tourists, and anyone looking for something to do during a weekday evening."
Some of the market's regulars keep a weekly stop in town over the off-season. Wild Child's website lists a usual Thursday spot at Beargrass Gift & Drug in Columbia Falls, Fridays at US Chef Store in Kalispell and Sundays at Lowe's in Kalispell. The truck notes that its schedule changes week to week. My Thai To Go posts its weekly stops on its own site, and that page is the best place to check before heading out.
A few places opened in town this year:
The Glacier Institute also opened its Nature Center at 7450 Highway 2 East this year, on 141 acres of ponds, trails and wetlands, with a ribbon cutting on June 17. Its pages list no regular walk-in hours, and as of Oct. 4 no fall events were posted for the site.
The dated events through December come from the Chamber, the Lions Club, local businesses and Kalispell organizers:
None of these events repeats weekly. Between the Sept. 24 market and next spring, the town's only standing weekday gathering comes from food trucks keeping a regular spot.
Anyone with questions about the market's land campaign can email [email protected]. Donations went through accounts at Freedom Bank, Stockman Bank and Park Side Credit Union, according to the Flathead Beacon's August coverage.
At Tyree Real Estate, we follow the land decisions that shape how Columbia Falls spends its evenings, and the Veteran Drive field is near the top of that list right now. If you'd like to talk through what a lease, a sale or a right of first refusal means for a property you own or are considering in the Flathead, we're glad to sit down and go through it with you.
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