In 2023, the three-story brick school at 410 Colorado Ave. was listed for $1.18 million. In July 2026 it sold at online auction for $150,300. Once you see why the price fell, the new owners' plan makes more sense: housing upstairs, offices in the middle, maybe a coffee shop at street level, and a gym that might serve the whole town.
The building opened in 1910. It was Laurel High School first, then Laurel Middle School, then the offices of Laurel Public Schools. Students hadn't attended classes there for about 20 years when KTVQ visited in January 2025. The district offices stayed until they moved to South School in 2025, and the building has been empty since November 2025.
How the Price Got From $1.18 Million to $150,300
The district gave a simple reason for selling. It wanted to stop paying insurance, utilities and maintenance on a building it no longer used, and to put the money from the sale toward upkeep elsewhere, including repairs at the current high school. Getting there took three years.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Listed for $1.18 million |
| March 2024 | Trustees voted unanimously to counter both of two offers, so the district would have a backup buyer |
| 2024 | Both buyers planned multifamily housing, and neither deal closed |
| 2025 | Relisted for $995,000 |
| July 2026 | Online auction opened at $75,000 and closed at a winning bid of $150,300 |
| Aug. 21, 2026 | Sale closed |
The key line in that timeline is the 2024 deals that fell through. According to KTVQ's July auction preview, those buyers concluded that apartment rents would not cover the cost of converting old classrooms into homes. Superintendent Matt Torix told the station, "It's just not an efficient way to use taxpayer dollars, so we'd rather get rid of the building."
So the $150,300 doesn't mean the building is in bad shape. It reflects that two serious buyers ran the numbers on turning the whole building into housing and walked away. The property comes with a lot to carry. The auction listing described two buildings totaling about 59,050 square feet on a 90,000-square-foot lot, including a 50,454-square-foot main building and a 7,900-square-foot auditorium, along with the rest of the block.
Why the New Plan Puts Something Different on Each Floor
The winning bid came from Butte developer Jeff Riggs. KTVQ reported the figure as $150,300, and the Laurel Outlook rounded it to $150,000. Riggs owns the building with Just Humphrey and Keith Waring. Riggs and Humphrey were roommates at Montana State University, and the group operates as Locomotive LLC.
Buying the building for so much less than the earlier asking prices gives them room the 2024 buyers didn't have. Their ideas don't depend on housing to pay for everything. The partners' three-page brochure, as described by the Laurel Outlook, lays out the possibilities floor by floor:
- Third floor: condominiums or multifamily homes, which the partners tie to Laurel's housing shortage.
- Second floor: small offices or flexible workspaces.
- First floor: something like a neighborhood coffee shop or restaurant.
Each floor is a different way to bring in money. The upper floor could sell or rent as homes, the middle floor could bring in office tenants, and the ground floor could open the building to people who just want coffee on Colorado Avenue. The 2024 plans leaned on multifamily housing alone.
Before any of that, though, the owners have to protect the building. "Our first goal is to stop the bleeding," Riggs told the Laurel Outlook. "We don't have deep pockets and want it to get used as we continue work." The brochure says the same thing more formally: "Our first priority is protecting the buildings from further deterioration while we evaluate what is realistic for the long term."
The Gym Needs the Most Work and Gets the Most Attention
The gym is the hardest part of the property to make pay, and it's also the part people remember best. It's a separate building, and the Laurel Outlook reported that daylight shows through parts of its roof and that the floor needs extensive work. The owners say they want to keep it anyway.
"We are 100% not going to tear it down. We love the landscaping around the outside basketball courts. They are awesome." Jeff Riggs, speaking to the Laurel Outlook
The brochure's ideas for the gym are mostly about the community rather than profit: youth or after-school programs, community recreation and rentals, or a partnership with a nonprofit or community group, possibly ending in a sale to one. That lines up with what some local business owners told reporters. Speaking to KTVQ in September, Palace Lanes owner John Smith said, "Laurel is really low on recreational activity right now. It would be great if we could bring some more recreation to the city of Laurel." In the same report, La Taqueria owner Miguel Hernandez said, "New citizens coming in will help the local businesses."
On Sept. 22, Riggs told KTVQ, "We feel like our job here really is to just bring this building into its next 100 years of use." Earlier, when the building was headed to auction, Torix pointed to something the town couldn't easily build again: "You can't buy this quality of brick anymore."
What the Oct. 16 Open House Brought Out
The owners opened the doors on Oct. 16, and dozens of people came. They walked through old classrooms and looked through report-card ledgers the partners found while cleaning out the building. Some of those records go back to the 1930s and come from the old North School, which was torn down decades ago. According to the Laurel Outlook, one visitor who said she was in one of the last graduating classes from the old high school found her own grades.
KTVQ's open house coverage shows how many generations have a connection to the building. Michelle Mize, who went to middle school there in the 1990s, said a classmate's favorite story is that "we learned to fly fish in this gym." Ed and Cindy Hatten finished middle school there in the 1970s, and Ed pointed out where a glass partition used to separate the study hall from the library. Lillie Grace went to high school in the building in the 1960s, and Riggs said he talked with a woman who cheered at Locomotives basketball games in the gym during that decade.
The suggestions people offered fit the owners' mixed plan. "I'm excited that this building is going to be put into use," Laurel resident Kathleen Gilluly told KTVQ. "But I would like to see a museum." Grace's request was simpler: "I just would like to see it maintained and kept up." Dustin Hopkins, whose family lives across the street, said "you could kind of feel the old, the memories in there." The owners also asked visitors to fill out a short survey by scanning a QR code.
What Has to Happen Before Anything Opens
Very little is settled. "This is all just conceptual stuff," Humphrey told KTVQ at the open house. "We have nothing planned at this point in time at all."
The biggest obstacle is zoning. The property is zoned residential, so the housing on the third floor fits best. The owners have said the offices would need additional land-use approval, and a coffee shop or restaurant would need city approval too. The parts of the plan that would help the building pay for itself are the same parts that need the City of Laurel to sign off. The partners have described the order they plan to follow:
"Before pursuing a zoning change or other land-use approval with the City of Laurel, we want to talk with the people who live around the school. Nothing is finalized."
The owners haven't announced a rezoning application, a hearing date or survey results. A request for a zoning change or land-use approval for 410 Colorado Ave. would go to the City of Laurel.
Laurel's older blocks change slowly, and the old school will likely shape the area around Colorado Avenue for years. If you own nearby or are watching the area and want to talk through how a project like this has played out in other parts of Yellowstone County, The Premier Group follows these Laurel developments as closely as we follow the market.
