Setting the Rhythm for Billings

Bill Honaker has made his mark on downtown

Bill Honaker knows the beat. In downtown Billings, he sets the tempo in his business endeavors and pursuits. As a drummer, he creates the rhythm in numerous gigs, plays and performances. He strives to be ahead of the game, setting the pace, ready for realizing his next dream.

“If I had my way, I would be a professional drummer,” he says with a smile. However, early on he acknowledged the importance of being realistic and pursued a career that would give him a more stable income. Often, Bill says, “When you become a professional, you don’t love your work anymore. It just becomes work.”

In his work as a developer and entrepreneur, he manifests his passion and determination to make downtown Billings live up to its nicknames of Magic City and Montana’s Trailhead. He laments, “When I talk to people and tell them I’m from Billings, I feel as though I have to apologize for that. I hope we don’t have to anymore. We need to become our own city. We have our own reasons to be here, to take the good and the bad, and go with that.”

Bill’s ventures began with his redevelopment of the Securities Building at the corner of North 27th Street and First Avenue North. In 2004, he wanted to move his restaurant, Walkers Grill, after it had been in the basement of the Old Chamber Building for 11 years, to a more prominent location. He and his wife, Marcia, gutted and refashioned the five-floor building on First Avenue, created by William Maines Sr. in 1917, to feature their restaurant on the ground floor with residential lofts and office space above. It was a new concept for downtown at the time.

Walkers Grill emerged into the light from a cavernous space to an exposed glass-fronted bar and eatery with an elegant rustic Montana motif. The menu continued to offer modern American cuisine created with European techniques, along with Walkers Meatloaf and Elsy’s mashed potatoes, a fondly remembered dish from his family’s childhood nanny.

"When a manager went on vacation in Missoula, I would run the bank for three weeks," he recalls. He enjoyed being in charge and having the freedom to explore a new city on his own. Mostly the experience energized his interest in commercial real estate development.

At the new location, Bill had the space for jamming with local and guest musicians on Sunday evenings. Since the pandemic, these gatherings are a little less frequent.

After earning a management degree from Montana State University in Bozeman, he worked for Security Federal Savings in town. For the next four years, he specialized in real estate financing as a banker, and also obtained a real estate license. At the bank, he had opportunities to take on a leadership role.

Around the same time, Bill met Marcia, his wife and partner for the last 35 years, at a real estate convention in California. With her hailing from Philadelphia, he relocated to the East Coast to be with her. From 1987 to 1993, he worked for Trammell Crow Company, one of the country’s leading commercial real estate development and investment firms, before moving to the KODE Development Group.

Bill says his work involved “getting the ground and planning it.” He adds, I would get the main anchors,” and when 60 percent of the occupants signed letters of intent, he would move onto the next project. “This was a great opportunity for me,” he says. “It put me on the fast track” of learning the business.

For Bill, pursuing a career in commercial real estate required a lot of determination, particularly during the boom-and-bust cycles in the 1980s and 1990s.

“The market went to crap,” he says. This opened up the opportunity for him to work part-time at Jack’s Firehouse, a restaurant founded by Jack McDavid that specialized in “haute country” cuisine, emphasizing cooking with locally raised products.

“I walked into Jack’s Firehouse and asked if I could work for free. I had to go back three times,” he recalls. There, he met Mike Callaghan, the sous chef, who became his boss. At the restaurant, he gained experience in kitchen operations, which included washing dishes, cooking and understanding the concept of farm-to-table cooking. He also bartended and oversaw front-of-house service.

Returning to Billings in 1993, he brought with him invaluable business skills. He also brought Callaghan, who stepped in as the chef de cuisine to help open Walkers Grill, named in honor of Bill’s father. He launched the restaurant with his brother, James, whom he calls the “best cook that I’ve ever known. He has the ability to go from cooking savory to sweet. It’s rare amongst chefs.”

James took the lead in developing the menu. “Food is the heart and soul of the place,” Bill says, pointing out the importance of allowing James to realize his vision for the restaurant’s cuisine. Bill then contributed his expertise by overseeing the execution of that vision.

“Downtown feels like home to me,” he says.

Parker Brown, a local musician specializing in bass and guitar, who has performed with Bill over the years, has seen his support in not only buildings, but in people. “Bill believes Billings can be great, so much so that I think everything he does is to make it better,” Parker says.

Bill played a part in bringing back another historical building when he partnered with Greg McDonald and A&E Architects in 2017 to completely renovate McDonald’s building on 29th Street and Second Avenue North, which had been home to a Wendy’s restaurant and the company’s local corporate office.

It was a $4.65 million redevelopment which became the new home to A&E Architects along with a dozen residents on the second and third floors. The project also received $700,000 in tax increment financing (TIF), demonstrating the Billings City Council’s desire to enhance the city’s core.

“Bill cares deeply about the success of his projects,” says Dusty Eaton, a principal at A&E Architects. “He wants to be strategic and careful, very methodical. He wants to make the greatest impact in a very gentle way, doing one project at a time.”

Bill tells his kids, Alex and Will, to “dream big. If you pay attention to your dream, you’re going to get there.” Nowadays, his son lives in Nashville, where he directs, produces and records for various artists, while his daughter, who lives in Scotland, is launching a boutique featuring clothing curated from around the world.

Bill took a big step in 2017, when he hired Nick Steen Gullings as executive chef and general manager at Walkers. It was a part of Bill’s exit plan to be able to embark on other projects. Since then, Gullings has been nominated three times as a semifinalist for Best Chef: Mountain from the James Beard Foundation.

“He’s enthusiastic and one of those people who helps you learn about yourself,” Nick says. “Bill provided me with a blank canvas. The level of trust he placed in me was unbelievable.” That trust enabled Nick to purchase the restaurant in 2023.

The sale meant Honaker could move on to a bigger dream, one that will change the downtown landscape significantly. Adding to his past property development projects at the federal courthouse, Empire Parking Garage, and Home 2 Suites by Hilton, he recently acquired the old City Hall and Park 3 building, along with two parking lots farther south on North 27th Street, and the Rockman Building at 2704 Second Ave. N.

In collaboration with Don Cape Jr., with Bozeman-based JWT Capital, Bill plans to develop an upscale 140-room Marriott AC Hotel on the Rockman site, with demolition planned for this summer. The hotel brand provides guests with a sleek and elegant retreat with a signature rooftop bar that serves artisan cocktails complemented by a lower-level restaurant featuring food inspired by modern European cuisine.

The Park 3 Garage, located across the street, will provide parking for guests while the other lots will be used for staff parking. The City Council showed faith, once again, in Bill’s vision by granting TIF assistance to the tune of $5 million. For the City Hall building, the Yellowstone County Museum is considering using the building for its expansion, with possible availability for other businesses and nonprofits.

“It’s time to stop building the cheapest structures possible. We need to take risks,” Bill says. “Projects like ours can inspire others to say, ‘Oh, this works.’” Over the years, he and Marcia have invested over $30 million in downtown Billings, with the new development proposed at $41 million.

“I want to create something meaningful and leave a legacy,” Bill says. “It’s really important for me to make the world a better place than when I found it.”