Boyle Investment Company representatives on Wednesday night presented a conceptual master plan for Project Phoenix, a proposed two‑block mixed‑use development adjacent to Gallatin City Hall that could include housing, retail, a hotel and a potential new city hall location, while remaining in a feasibility phase under a memorandum of understanding with Gallatin City.

The presentation, led by Jeff Haynes of Boyle Investment Company, with John Harlan of Boyle's development team and Kevin Clark of Historical Concepts, described a plan that stays within an MOU limit of 300 residential units and sketched a likely yield of roughly 250 units split between two blocks. Haynes said Boyle has been in a memorandum of understanding with the city “for over a year and a half” and described the session as an opportunity to gather public feedback as the team moves from conceptual design toward schematic design.

The developer emphasized that the project is not a final plan. “There is no guarantee that this project moves forward,” Haynes said, noting Boyle’s ongoing feasibility work and that the company would present consolidated feedback and a concept report to city council in a work session prior to Nov. 11.

Why it matters: Project Phoenix would reconfigure two currently underused downtown parking lots with a mix of public and private uses and could affect parking, greenspace and the Town Creek Greenway alignment—issues central to downtown Gallatin’s pedestrian character and future redevelopment.

Key elements described

- Program and unit limits: Under the MOU the project cannot exceed 300 residential units; the development team’s current conceptual yield is about 250 residential units across both blocks (John Harlan). Boyle and Historical Concepts described a mix of multifamily, retail, office and a hotel in building types intended to activate Main Street and the Town Creek Greenway.

- Parking and garage strategy: The team proposed a combination of subterranean and above‑grade parking. The concept included a second‑block deck of about 400 spaces and a subterranean garage beneath a potential new city hall with “over 200 spaces,” plus on‑street parking. The presenters emphasized shared parking—overlapping daytime and evening uses such as city hall, offices, hotel and restaurants—to reduce total parking area required.

- City hall and public open space: One conceptual option showed a new city hall fronting Main Street with a secondary face onto a proposed pocket park or plaza intended as a public gathering space. The design sketches emphasized liner buildings on Franklin Street to shield parking areas from the pedestrian experience and a north‑south connection that would extend Enloe Street toward Town Creek.

- Town Creek Greenway and activation: The team said they intend to enhance access to the Town Creek Greenway, with opportunities such as improved walkways and small‑scale programming—examples included possible outdoor movie events—on the creek side of the development.

Design approach and public feedback

Kevin Clark, principal at Historical Concepts, described the firm’s methodology of “studying the DNA” of a place—scale, building proportions, sidewalks and materials—and said the conceptual drawings are massing studies rather than final architecture. Clark led an interactive exercise using Mentimeter to collect attendees’ preferences on architectural character, building materials and program priorities; attendees were asked to choose among traditional, contemporary or mixed character and to rank amenities such as plazas, green space, farmers markets and parking.

Clark said the team intends to use the public responses along with prior stakeholder meetings to refine the concept and prepare a report for city council. “We’re right in the middle of this feasibility phase,” he said, adding that the presentation and interactive feedback will be consolidated into a report for a council work session.

Timeline and next steps

Haynes and Harlan said Boyle will compile feedback from this meeting and previous stakeholder sessions and present the consolidated findings to Gallatin City Council in a work session before Nov. 11. The developer stated it expects to complete feasibility analysis by the end of the first quarter of next year and then determine whether to advance a formal development plan; Haynes reiterated there is no certainty the project will move forward.

No formal city actions or votes were taken at the meeting. The presentation and the interactive polling were positioned as public outreach and information‑gathering in advance of a future council briefing.

Speakers and attribution

Direct quotes and attributions in this article come from the presenters at the meeting: Jeff Haynes (Boyle Investment Company), John Harlan (Boyle development team) and Kevin Clark (Historical Concepts). Other audience responses were collected anonymously via the Mentimeter tool and are summarized herein as public feedback rather than attributable quotations.

What remains unresolved

The team did not provide final engineering, traffic, stormwater or cost figures at the meeting. Several technical topics were identified as areas for further study—traffic flow and garage circulation, parking demand and shared‑parking modeling, detailed floodplain/creek edge design and the financial feasibility model for combining public uses (a new city hall) with private development. Boyle said those topics will be examined as part of feasibility and schematic design.

Closing: The developer invited attendees to continue submitting feedback online and in follow‑up meetings; Boyle reiterated that it will return with a consolidated report to Gallatin City Council and that the project’s advancement depends on results of the feasibility work and subsequent city review.