彼は私に対して親しい気持ちを持っていた.the sentence, i have a feeling in my gut that it means "he has friendly feelings towards me" but im not sure. i need to be reassured or corrected on this. thanks for the help!

Thats how I would interpret it.

に対して can mean towards, so yes, it appears that you got the right idea. Except it is the past participle, not present - "he had (for a period of time) close or intimate feelings towards me."