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Jeremiah Johnson is featured in The Living a Stout Life Podcast. The program talks about Jeremiah's Montana roots and the future of Jeremiah Johnson beer. Listen to Jeremiah Johnson: The man behind the brewery here. Picture courtesy of The Living Stout Life Podcast.

1) Congratulations to the Great Falls Theatre Company on bringing large-scale community theater back to Great Falls with "Oklahoma" at the University of Providence! See KRTV and TheElectric. Carnivorium Ice Cream Parlor & Cafe is now open on the first floor of the Columbus Center at 1601 2nd Ave N in Great Falls. 

2) Help us welcome Montana's first medical students to Great Falls and Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine! There are 3 ways you can hop on the welcome wagon. We'd like to invite you to add to the Great Falls gift basket that we are assembling for each of the new students. Your business can contribute to the baskets! Secondly, at other Touro campuses the local business and community leaders are invited to host students out to dinner one night as the new year kicks off. We would like to join that tradition on Thursday, August 24. If you would like to participate in either of these opportunities, please reach out to Jenn Gallmeier at [email protected]. Thirdly, if you would like to participate in Touro's White Coat Campaign you can sponsor the white coat for an aspiring DO student here. 

3) GFDA closed an $80,000 loan to The Messy Apron, LLC to help purchase equipment and fund working capital for their brick-and-mortar expansion. This client originally started operations with a food truck and had the vision to be able to turn that into a permanent location. The clients realized this vision with the construction of their new location in Cut Bank, Montana. GFDA is excited to continue to help this entrepreneur achieve success. Contact Jill Kohles to learn about the different financing tools available to help your business to start, expand or innovate, [email protected].

4) We hosted a Rural Energy for America Program and Value-Added Producer Grant training session in Conrad! Our esteemed trainer, Lea McGiboney from USDA Rural Development, dazzled us with her knowledge, tips, and resources, not to mention project success stories from both programs. Want more information? Contact Katesha at 406.788.0860 or [email protected].

5) Have you created or updated your Dynamic Small Business Search DSBS profile? A strong profile can significantly boost your contracting success by increasing your visibility to local, state, and federal agencies seeking goods and services. If you would like more information on how to create or update your DSBS profile, contact Shannon Clancy at [email protected].

6) The State Small Business Credit Initiative 2.0 (SSBCI 2.0) low interest rate program is still awaiting their third tranche of funding. This third tranche is on a first come first served basis, so start talking with GFDA now, if you have a project that could move forward with the benefit of low interest rate funding. These funds are limited and will be put to work very quickly to help our economy recover and come back stronger than ever. If you have a business startup or expansion planned that could benefit from a loan participation, contact Jill at [email protected] or 1-406-590-1056.

7) The first of our Business Focus events have been scheduled and we will be launching in Choteau and Conrad on Tuesday, August 1st. Our focus for this month will be bank readiness with guest speaker Rich Gannon. We will be following up with more dates and times across the region. Please reach out to Tony at [email protected] or 406-750-2099. 

8) Brides in Great Falls have a new option for dress shopping - Silhouette Bridal Studio in Great Falls. The studio is owned and operated by local businesswoman Melissa Stokes. Learn more in our Announcement of the Week. 

9) As part of our effort to increase housing production in Great Falls, GFDA is partnering with the Montana Facility Finance Authority to offer a free interactive presentation on the C-PACE program and how this and other tools can be leveraged to get housing projects off the ground. The event will be held on Thursday, July 20, at 10:30 AM at Great Falls College MSU in room B101. Registration is live now! Contact Jake with questions, [email protected]. 

10) Are you a food facility needing a qualified individual to create a Food Safety Plan? Learn to develop and implement a FDA-compliant Food Safety Plan and receive a certificate of completion directly from the Food Safety and Preventive Controls Alliance. Join us and Instructor Claude Smith from the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center in August for the Preventive Controls Qualified Individual for Human Food training, August 16-18 here in Great Falls. Click here for more information and to register, or contact Katesha at 4067880860 or [email protected].

11) We're excited to announce that Anna Flies will be joining the GFDA staff team as a Business Development Officer starting this Monday, July 17th! Anna is an accomplished small business founder and acupuncturist who recently relocated to Great Falls. She earned BA's in match and philosophy from St. John's College and a Masters of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from the New England School of Acupuncture. Anna will be working with Katesha Campbell, Jolene Schalper and our other great business development team members on growing and diversifying the region's food, ag and bio processing industries. Anna spent three summers working as an organic CSA during college, gaining a love of farming and food production. She speaks French and Japanese which will benefit us because we already have several French and Japanese owned processing companies in the Great Falls region.

12) I invested time this week to learn and network with colleagues and potential loan capital sources at the Opportunity Finance Network's regional meeting of Community Development Financial Institutions hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. And, I participated in the annual strategic retreat of the International Economic Development Council's Economic Development Research Partners hosted by Target headquarters in Minneapolis. Our next research product is a series on Building and Leading Next-Level Economic Development Organizations. GFDA is one of IEDC's 62 research partners, the only partner investing in cutting edge economic development research in Montana.

13) As part of our comprehensive professional development opportunities, Jolene was able to volunteer with the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) providing technical assistance to the Tinian Cattleman's Association, Saipan Department of Commerce, and Saipan Small Business Development Center. The US Territory is recovering from the double hit of a super typhoon and COVID 19 pandemic which decimated their tourism based economy. This project is one of the recommendations that came from a comprehensive SWOT analysis and strategic plan for economic recovery that Brett was part of developing.  

14) We received the money from the CDFI Fund of the U.S. Treasury for our latest Financial Award, $502,370 in grant funds match 1:1 by our GFDA Investors and $237,630 in low-interest loan funds matched 1:1 by a low interest loan from the Montana Board of Investments (MBOI). This marks our eighth competitive Financial Award from the CDFI Fund, matched 1:1 by our investors and MBOI. $75,355 of the funds will help support our operations and the remainder will be used for loan capital. We will immediately put the new loan capital to work in the Great Falls region. In fact, we have already issued loan commitments waiting on these funds. THANK YOU to our Investors for making all of this possible!

15) Investing in economic development is about creating opportunities, fostering innovation, and building a foundation for sustainable success. Nobody understands that more than our dedicated team of INVESTORS and public partner. Learn more about them HERE. Recent investments include: Pacesetter Division—McDonald’s of Great Falls; Republic Services; Community Division—Great Falls Business Improvement District; Great Falls College MSU; Geranios Enterprises, Inc. Their investments are laying the groundwork for a brighter tomorrow, ensuring a prosperous future for generations to come. If you’d like to learn how you can support the growth and economic success of our community, reach out to Investment Director Jenn Gallmeier at 406-781-9499 or [email protected].

We working with some amazing clients on really exciting projects. It's wonderful to have such creative and strong entrepreneurs in the Great Falls region!

Brett

Brett Doney

President & CEO

Connect with me on LinkedIn to network with the Great Falls Montana region. Forward the GFDA Top 10 to friends and colleagues. You can join our distribution list HERE or text GFDA to 22828.

Subscribe to the Grow Great Falls Montana YouTube channel!

"Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition – in having to put forth the best within you."

Henry Kaiser

Edition 591

We have a great career opportunity to join the GFDA staff team. Download info on Small Business Advisor -- Director Regional Small Business Development Center. GFDA is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer!

If your company needs a rail-served, BNSF-Certified, shovel-ready site with all municipal services at your door, we have lots available for immediate construction in the Great Falls AgriTech Park. Contact Jolene Schalper at 1.406.750.4481 or [email protected]

July SBA 504 Loan Rates

The 25-year loan effective rate (including all fees) is 6.579%; 20-year at 6.632%; 10-year equipment loan at 7.063%; and, 20-year refinance 6.650%; 25-year refinance 6.597%. These rates are FIXED for the life of the loan and are inclusive of all fees. If you would like to find out how to get financing for commercial real estate and equipment at potentially lower rates than you're paying for your home mortgage, please contact Jill Kohles at 406-590-1056 or [email protected].

The University of Montana's Bureau of Business and Economic Research annual Mid Year Economic Update is coming to Great Falls on August 2nd, Noon-1:30 at the Hilton Garden Inn. Register here.

The 12th Annual Montana Clean Energy Fair will be in Billings this year. The Fair will be held on the MSUB campus on August 12 from 9:00am to 3:30 pm. The Fair is free and open to the public. No tickets or registration are required. There will be workshops, exhibits and clean energy experts. Workshops will take place throughout the day, starting at 10 am and running through 2:45 pm. For more information call (406) 214-9405 or see montanarenewables.org.

Central Montana Works!’s second annual Worlds of Work™ (WOW™) will be held in Great Falls on September 26th. WOW™ is not your typical job fair, but a hands-on career exploration event which opens new avenues of opportunity for middle school and high school students they never knew were possible. The goal for this second year is to have approximately 100 businesses spread across sixteen “worlds,” each of which represents one of the sixteen nationally recognized career clusters. If you are a business interested in being an exhibitor at Worlds of Work™, please click here. If you need to edit your existing participant profile, need assistance with registration, or are interested in sponsorship information, please reach out to Alyssa Larkey at [email protected] or call 761-4434. 

The Great Falls Housing Market Assessment shows a need for over 450 new housing units per year in the immediate Great Falls area. For assistance with housing development, contact Jake Clark at [email protected] or 1-406-403-4937.

USDA has launched a new online tool to assist small businesses in identifying procurement opportunities; see USDA's Procurement Forecast.

Zero to 5 has launched the Montana Child Care Business Connect website to help support the startup and expansion of early childcare businesses. The Great Falls Childcare Demand Assessment shows a need for additional childcare facilities to serve 580 children in Great Falls. For assistance with childcare facility business planning, contact Rich Gannon at [email protected] or 1-406-836-2078.

One of the many tools we have for renovating your building in Downtown Great Falls is the City's Downtown Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Grant. This 50% match grant can help with Façade, Building Code Compliance, and Safety & Security. One of the biggest uses of this grant is Fire Suppression and updating the face of your building. To find out more about this grant, call Christian at 406.836.0136 or email [email protected] and let's discuss how TIF and other tools can help you change the face of Downtown Great Falls. 

Employers are you looking for timely data on our local workforce? JobsEQ for Workforce is a software tool that provides timely data on our local workforce and employers—including demographics, occupations, wages, certifications, and more. Contact Lyndsay Bruno at [email protected] or at (406) 590 – 1539 to be connected with a JobsEQ-trained Business Advisor today. To learn more about our talent attraction tools visit our website. 

We launched the new Livability Great Falls Magazine. Find and share Livability Great Falls online or contact Lyndsay Bruno at [email protected] or (406) 590 – 1539 for hard copies of the magazine. 

Recruiters are you hiring for a job position that is a:  

• High level position 
• High salary position 
• Out-of-the-box/unique/creative position? 

Help us attract workforce to move to Great Falls - send us a one sentence description of the job, 3-5 of your company's top employee benefits, salary (if listed), and link to apply for your job to [email protected] to be included in the Hot Jobs in Great Falls blog post.  

The 2023 Montana Food and Beverage Show, hosted by the Montana Department of Agriculture, is scheduled for October 16 in Missoula. The show allows Montana businesses to showcase their food and beverage products to professional buyers from restaurants, hotels, bars, retailers, and more.

The Montana Department of Commerce has extended the application deadline to December 31st for the Montana Cybersecurity Program will provide up to $8,000 reimbursement for your cybersecurity expenses. And don't forget about funds available for your workforce through the Incumbent Worker Training Program and the Primary Workforce Training Grant. We can help you access these programs if you run into snags.

Navy Week - Doing Business with the Department of Navy & GovMatch Event (Billings Depot on Montana Avenue) - Join the Montana APEX Accelerator (formerly known as Procurement Technical Assistance Center - PTAC) August 9th from 9 AM – 5 PM as they welcome Mr. David E. Walz to Billings. Mr. Walz is the Deputy Small Business Program, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport. He serves as the principal advisor and advocate to the commander, senior management, contracts, and the technical department on all matters pertaining to small business program. During this event, businesses will receive information on the following topics: 1. Department of the Navy (DON) Office of Small Business Programs' Achievements and Goals 2. The DON OSBP Mentor-Protégé Program 3. Preparing for the DON procurement process 4. Resources and assistance to help businesses 5. GovMatch event in the afternoon. You will be able to meet with various other federal agencies in the afternoon. To register, click here. If you have any questions, contact Shannon Clancy [email protected].

USDA opened a new round of Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grants and loans. Rural small businesses and agricultural producers can use the funds to make energy-efficiency improvements to lower operating costs or to install renewable energy systems. Quarterly competitions will be held through September 30th. See MATR.net for more info. Contact Katesha Campbell if you would like help with applying; [email protected] or 1-406-788-0860. 

The Montana Manufacturing Extension Center has launched an apprenticeship program. The Certified Manufacturing Associate Apprenticeship is a one-year program that combines on-the-job training with online technical classes on safety, math and measurements, manufacturing processes, and quality control.

Are you in the planning and development phase of expanding your agricultural product or adding value to Montana agriculture by expanding your product into new markets? Montana’s Growth Through Agriculture (GTA) Business Acceleration Program (BAP) and Market Development Program (MDP) grants could help! Funds are available; click here for more information or contact Katesha at [email protected].

The 341st Contracting Squadron, Malmstrom Air Force Base (AFB), is contemplating a solicitation for a multiple award contract (MAC) and is looking for responses to this Sources Sought Notification. Awarded MAC indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts would be for the construction of structures and facilities, repair, maintenance, and alteration of real property assets within the confines of Malmstrom AFB, Weapons Storage Area (WSA), and Missile Alert Facility (MAF) and Launch Facility (LF) sites located within the Missile Complex throughout Montana. This is a great opportunity to Introduce your company to the Contracting Wing at Malmstrom AFB. Do you have a Capability Statement prepared that you can provide with your Sources Sought reply? If not, contact us at [email protected]. For more information on the Notice, click here.



ArtsFest Montana will return to downtown Great Falls August 11-18. The Business Improvement District is looking for property owners who would like to have a professionally painted mural installed on their building. Contact Kellie at [email protected] or 1-406-727-5430. See TheElectric for more details.

If you are trying to redevelop a property that involves an environmental cleanup (including lead paint and asbestos) and you have a gap in your financing, your project may qualify for our low-interest brownfield redevelopment loan funds. We can make loans anywhere in Cascade County or within 100 miles from the borders of Cascade County which covers much of the region. We're eager to help make your project move forward. Contact Tony Peres at 1-406-750-2099 or [email protected]. We also have some small business or nonprofit startup or expansion loan funds available for Glacier and Blaine counties.

Cybersecurity challenges for businesses continue to grow. The Montana Manufacturing Extension Center (MMEC) is offering an array of useful resources to help Montana businesses to protect themselves.

Do you have open government contracts? Is your SAM.gov registered due to renew in the next few months? SAM.gov continues to have issues with the transition of the new validation process. It is recommended that businesses start early to renew their registration to keep from going inactive. If you are having trouble getting through the process, contact Shannon Clancy at [email protected] for assistance. 

The Montana Innovation Partnership is offering a number of trainings and an accelerator program for companies interested in pursuing Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants.

Montana STEP grants can pay for 75% of your international export marketing efforts up to $10,000. The Montana TechLink Center at MSU is offering a new round of workshops on how to win Small Business Innovation Research funding.

We have migrated our pre-business workshop for early stage and pre-venture startups to a self-paced, video-facilitated, online format. Business Basics for Startups is now live and ready for beta testing. If you’d like to check out the content and provide feedback, we’d appreciate it. Click here to check out the new modules and resources. All of our recorded monthly business strategy webinars are available online for viewing anytime, check them out here. Please direct feedback to Rich at [email protected].

The best resource we scan daily to stay abreast of business and community innovation is MATR.net (Montana Associated Technology Roundtables) which we are proud to help sponsor. Sign up for their free newsletter.

Join our Trailing Partner Email Group specifically for local employers to share resumes of trailing spouses/partners across the Great Falls region with other employers looking to hire. “Your (Live in Great Falls) website is very impressive and helpful! Great Falls looks amazing, and we love what we've seen real estate-wise, and business-wise.” This quote was from an email sent to us from a couple considering relocation to Great Falls. We will be sharing their resumes (with their permission) on the Trailing Partner Email Group.

Visit our relocation website LiveInGreatFalls.com. This website was the #1 request we got from local recruiters and HR professionals for aiding in attracting talented workers to Great Falls. The Great Falls At-A-Glance two-pager is a great complementary resource that highlights Great Falls for people unfamiliar with our community.

Of our online business planning tool, LivePlan, one said: "LivePlan is Awesome!" The LivePlan tool is helping her streamline her strategy in preparation for presenting to bank partners. We offer LivePlan licenses for free to active clients. Learn more about LivePlan on our website.

Grow diverse economic opportunities that enhance quality of life.

GFDA is a certified Community Development Financial Institution and a 501(c)3 charitable organization. High Plains Financial is a certified Community Development Corporation that offers SBA 504 loans statewide. GFDA and High Plains Financial are Equal Opportunity Employers, Lenders and Providers.

GFDA is proud to host a Montana Small Business Development Center, a Montana Procurement Technical Assistance Center, and a Montana Food & Ag Development Center. We are also proud to provide office space for MSU's Montana Manufacturing Extension Center and an SBA Women's Business Center in partnership with the University of Montana and the Montana Native Growth Fund.

GFDA was the first economic development organization in the Rocky Mountain West to earn accreditation from the International Economic Development Council.

Great Falls Development Alliance | GrowGreatFallsMontana.org