Logjam Presents Announces New Missoula Entertainment Complex The Drift

Courtesy of Logjam Presents – The Drift
An artist’s rendering of the Drift, a new Missoula entertainment complex under development by Montana-based promoter Logjam Presents.

Montana-based promoter Logjam Presents announced an ambitious new entertainment complex for the banks of the Clark Fork River, in Missoula, Mont., on Thursday.

The $100 million entertainment complex, named the Drift, will include a 6,000-capacity indoor venue, as well as a 200-room boutique-style hotel, two restaurants, a 400-stall parking facility, roughly 10,000 square feet of additional event space, 45 residential condominium units and a riverfront promenade.

“We are expanding on Missoula’s growing reputation as a music destination in the Northwest,” Logjam owner and entertainment buyer Nick Checota said in a statement. “This development will offer both Montanans and destination concertgoers a one-stop entertainment complex where they can combine seeing their favorite artists with a trip to the recreation-rich mountain town of Missoula, Montana.”

Checota added that the “transformational project … not only establishes an entertainment civic center on the river, but will serve as an economic engine for all of downtown.”

The Drift’s development expects construction to begin in summer 2020.

Since launching in late 2016, Logjam has become a regional force, with venues including Missoula’s Top Hat and Wilma and nearby Bonner’s KettleHouse Amphitheater.

“A lot of the promoters that work in this region, the Northwest region, are headquartered in other markets,” Checota told Pollstar at the time. “We feel this market is unique and having a presence here really gives us an advantage in understanding the types of music this market wants to see and the types of entertainment this market wants to buy.”

That operating principle has led to rapid growth, whether in Missoula, where Logjam inked a deal for exclusive booking of Ogren Park last year, or Bozeman, the city three hours southeast of Missoula, where Logjam began construction earlier this year on 1,500-capacity venue ELM, to accompany the 500-capacity Rialto Theater, which Logjam exclusively books.

The success has attracted attention from large promoters, Checota told Pollstar in an independent promoters survey in July.

“We have been approached by one of the large, national promoters, but at this time have decided that our customers, artists, agents and community are best served by a local, Montana-based company that is owned and operated in the communities in which we promote and produce shows,” he said.