Former Bob Ward store set to become Buffalo Church home in Helena

The former Bob Ward and Sons Sporting Goods building at 3323 Dredge Drive is being remade into Buffalo Church’s new home, a visible change of use for one of Helena’s most familiar commercial sites. City records put the remodel at just under $1.5 million, signaling a project that goes beyond a simple interior refresh.

Buffalo Church has been meeting downtown at the Great Northern Hotel on Sundays at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., but the congregation has been pushing toward a permanent location of its own. The church says it launched on January 29, 2023, after Todd and Micah felt called in 2021 to plant a new church in Helena. Its stated goal is a larger, lasting space, including a 24/7 area for community care and support.

That makes the Dredge Drive project more than a tenant change. A retail building that once sold outdoor gear is being adapted for regular worship services, community programming and the kind of ongoing activity that comes with a church operating throughout the week. For neighbors near the site, that likely means a different pattern of cars, parking demand and foot traffic than the former sporting goods store generated.

The change also reflects the broader afterlife of Bob Ward properties in Montana. Al’s Sporting Goods acquired Bob Ward & Sons’ Montana locations in 2022, and the Helena store closed at the end of 2025 after the Butte location shut down in 2024. The Helena closure left a well-known building available on a corridor that has long served as one of the city’s key commercial strips.

City of Helena building rules require a permit when an owner or authorized agent plans to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish or change the occupancy of a building. That is why the Dredge Drive project surfaced in public records, and why the former Bob Ward box is now being tracked as a church conversion rather than a vacant retail shell.

For the Dredge Drive corridor, the project shows how Helena’s old commercial spaces are being reused instead of left idle. A building that once anchored retail traffic is on track to serve a different civic function, one that keeps activity in the neighborhood and gives Buffalo Church a more permanent address in Lewis and Clark County.