Great Falls metro area national rank for Best Market for First-Time Homebuyers: 4th
Great Falls rank for best metro area in nation for Average Annual Pay Growth: 11th
Number of units in Arc Apartment Homes that just started construction: 216
Increase in GFDA loan capital during FY 2021: 63%
Estimated need for additional GFDA loan capital to fill financing gaps and bridges in the next year: $11 million
Number of students Touro University will have each year in Masters program added to Great Falls medical school plan: 70
Final amount of Brownfield cleanup grant GFDA was able to provide to Cascade County: $146,489
New Brownfield clean-up grants awarded by GFDA during quarter: $205,000
Cost of living in Great Falls compared to national average: 90.5%
Cost of living in Great Falls compared to Bozeman: 19% less
Average wage increase in Great Falls MSA in 2020: 4.6%
Dollar amount of average wage increase: $1,938
Average wage increase in Golden Triangle in 2020: 5.1%
Number of local entrepreneurs and businesses advised by GFDA during quarter: 188
Of these, number of new advising clients: 68
Number of business training sessions offered during quarter: 17
Number of training participants: 197
Number of businesses bought or started by advised clients during quarter: 5
New capital secured by entrepreneur clients during quarter: $4,911,618
Federal government contracts won by clients during quarter: $2,229.120
State government contracts won by clients during quarter: $946,822
Jobs supported by our Small Business Development Center during quarter: 627
Businesses active with our Procurement Technical Assistance Center during quarter: 120
Amount of local GFDA gap and bridge loans closed during quarter: $7,703,789
Additional private investment leveraged by these GFDA loans: $29,561,571
Amount of loans we approved during quarter: $512,000
Additional private investment to be leveraged: $754,500
Building permits issued by City of Great Falls during quarter: 62
Dollar amount of permits: $39,700,670
Free Brownfield assessments completed during quarter: 5
Free Brownfield assessments in progress: 5
Brownfield cleanups completed during quarter: 1
Brownfield cleanups underway: 4
New leads generated into our pipeline during quarter: 34
New active projects generated into our pipeline: 30
Total active projects this quarter: 49
New companies added to our pipeline CRM: 61
Companies actively engaged this quarter: 328
Number of web microsite users generated by business attraction account-based-marketing campaign during quarter: 6,031
Number of microsite sessions during quarter: 7,742
Top cities where sessions initiated: Salt Lake City, Columbus OH, Missoula, Washington DC, Spokane, Seattle, and Dallas
Number of companies targeted on preliminary list for FY 2022 business attraction AMB campaign: 460
Website sessions generated in 2020 through Live In Great Falls talent attraction partnership with Livability.com: 18,700
Top cities where sessions originated: Salt Lake City, Missoula, Seattle, Denver, Bozeman, Billings, and Helena
Google search rank: 2nd and 3rd
Facebook engagement with Great Falls Livability.com articles: 182,000
Unique users: 206,000
Post reactions: 370,000
Average monthly users: 26,700
Total views of online Livability Great Falls digital magazine: 4,900
Montana infrastructure report card grade: C
Estimated percent of full workdays in U.S. that will be worked from home post-pandemic: 20%
Pre-pandemic percentage: 5%
Gen Zers who say they eventually plan to start their own business: 60%+
Most important elements of business agility according to survey of North America foodservice companies: Digital transformation 71%; Rapid decision and learning cycles 50%
U.S. consumers who have used restaurant delivery in the past month: 17%
Most-cited drawback of restaurant delivery services: Added fees 63%
Estimated percent of new electric generation capacity to be installed in U.S. in 2021: Solar 39%; wind 31%; natural gas 16%
Cost per hour to cuddle with a cow at Mountain Horse Farms in NY: $75
