The Rocky Mountain building is starting to see a major facelift in Downtown Great Falls. Alluvion Health purchased the building in 2019 and is taking on the task of the renovation to later house all its services under one roof.
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Here is our Top 17 for this week celebrating work and successes to grow and strengthen the Great Falls regional economy -- Montana's Golden Triangle. And, sharing business resources and skill-building opportunities to empower your success.
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1) The Great Falls City Commission unanimously supported two steps forward for downtown revitalization. The Gibson hotel development was approved for a tax abatement that will help this project move forward; see Great Falls Tribune. Expansion of the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) was approved, adding 20 more parcels; see The Electric. The Great Falls City Commission also unanimously approved a tax abatement helping the Great Falls Clinic hospital expansion to move forward; see The Electric.
2) We held the kick-off meeting of the Health and Bioscience Economic Development Strategy Steering Committee with our consultants from Tripp Umbach. Thank you to the local and regional partners from north central Montana who are helping with this project, an important part of our deep-dive strategic planning. We're digging into how we can leverage the region's excellent healthcare and health education assets to nurture health and bioscience industries in the region. If you know of an organization or business in our region who we should invite to the conversation, please contact Jake Clark at [email protected]
3) Congratulations to Gayle Fisher, long-time leader of Central Montana Tourism, on being recognized with the Legacy Award at the 2022 Governor's Conference on Tourism and Recreation!
6) We continue to work with business owners trying to increase the amount of their SBA COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL). If your business is running into brick wall after brick wall with the SBA in the increase process, got a denial for an incorrect reason, have closed your loan but haven’t received the funds yet, or could use some insights in how COVID EIDL funds can and cannot be used, contact Jason at 406-750-0314 or [email protected].
8) Join us and other business resource partners for a Business Pitch In Event on April 28th at 6:00 PM at the Cut Bank Creek Brewery in Cut Bank. Our Business Pitch In events are designed to spur innovation and entrepreneurship and give attendees an opportunity to pitch, discuss their business idea, and meet like-minded people. We're excited to bring these in-person fun events back! If you would like to partner with us to hold a Business Pitch In event, please contact Lyndsay at [email protected] or 1-406-590-1539.
9) Area Development published its annual survey of corporate site selection factors. The five factors scoring highest with over 90% of corporations rating as very important or important were labor costs, availability of skilled labor, energy availability and costs, inbound/outbound shipping costs, and highway accessibility. The eight factors scoring second highest with over 80% of corporations rating as very important or important were raw materials availability, corporate tax rate, state and local incentives, environmental regulations, tax exemptions, quality of life, occupancy or construction costs, and right to work state.
10) Area Development also published its annual survey of site selection consultants. Over 75% of the consultants rated the following site selection factors as very important or important to their clients (in rating order): proximity to major markets, availability of skilled labor, highway accessibility, state and local incentives, proximity to suppliers, available land, energy availability and costs, expedited or fast-track permitting, occupancy or construction costs, tax exemptions, available buildings, inbound/outbound shipping costs, labor costs, raw materials availability, training programs/technical schools, environmental regulations, availability of unskilled labor, and quality of life. These surveys included 28 site selection factors. Every company's siting decision is different. We often have only a few days to respond to lengthy requests for information that can run into hundreds of siting factors.
11) Do you have space you are hoping to lease? We routinely get requests for spaces from companies interested in locating in the Great Falls trade area. We are currently looking for a 2,000 square foot workshop with a loading dock and three-phase power with room to grow. The first places we look and refer all commercial space inquiries to is on loopnet.com and through our local broker investors . If you have space available that is not on Loopnet and/or listed with a local broker, it will likely get missed by businesses looking for space. Talk with Jake Clark on our team at 406-403-4937.
12) Save the dates for four new trainings we’ve recently added to our Business Education Calendar this summer. We’ll be hosting our cash flow and profitability course Profit Mastery on July 8th and July 15th . We’re also launching a new training to inspire and educate entrepreneurs about becoming a franchise owner. Becoming a Franchisee: An Alternate Path to Business Ownership will be hosted in-person July 29 and via a two-part webinar August 11 and August 18.
13) Join us for the June Strategic Teaming Alliance Roundtable (STAR) hosted by PTAC in alliance with Northrop Grumman Corporation on June 16 at 8:00 AM MST. This is the second event in a series of STAR roundtables designed to assist businesses with navigating and benefiting from doing business with the federal government and large federal contractors (often referred to as Primes). Connect with panelists from businesses that are currently successfully performing as prime and subcontractors. Learn helpful tips to assist you in achieving your government contracting goals. REGISTER!
14) USDA launched a Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) to help compensate producers with their livestock losses incurred by adverse weather or attacks by animals reintroduced into the wild by the Federal Government. LIP payments are equal to 75% the average fair market value of the livestock. For more information visit the USDA website here.
15) Our Executive Committee approved commissioning a CDFI (Community Development Financial Institution) Growth Model to help us develop a business plan for continuing to expand our loan capital to keep pace with gap and bridge financing needs in the region that our bank and credit union partners cannot fill. We currently have $19 million in loan capital which is not enough to meet immediate opportunities to enable projects to move into construction this quarter. We have borrowed $2,563,226 in the last year to increase our loan capital and have another $2 million in requests pending to borrow additional loan capital. We are also seeking local and state pass through of federal pandemic recovery funds that we could use to get more projects moving forward.
16) GFDA's Executive Committee also approved moving ahead with a much needed overhaul of our GrowGreatFallsMontana.org website.
17) THANK YOU to our investors and public partners for their continued support! Because of them, our team can keep working towards our mission of growing and diversifying the regional economy and providing higher wage opportunities for the community. Recent investments include: Pacesetter Division—Pasta Montana; Community Division—Walmart. They are champions of Great Falls and support economic development. If YOU want to support the economic development of the region, reach out to Investment Director Jenn Gallmeier at 406-781-9499 or [email protected].
Have a great week!
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.
"Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people."
Steve Jobs
Edition 531
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GFDA Career Opportunities
Thanks to the Montana Department of Agriculture, we are creating a second Food/Ag Business Development Officer position to boost our efforts to grow the food, ag and bio-processing industries in the Great Falls region. Thanks to the Montana Department of Commerce, we are creating a Small Business Navigator to strengthen our region's entrepreneurial ecosystem by connecting more entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs with resources that can help them succeed. We are still looking for a Competitive Improvements Director to lead efforts to address key challenges in Great Falls including housing production, industrial space, logistics costs, and talent attraction. Here is a PDF of our GFDA Career Opportunities.
Cost-Effective Rail-Served Industrial Sites Available
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]
April SBA 504 Loan Rates
The 25-year loan effective rate (including all fees) came in at 4.676%; 20-year at 4.615%; 10-year equipment loan at 3.807%; and, 20-year refinance 4.629%; 25-year refinance 4.690%. 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].
Invest in Great Falls Regional Economic Development
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Events, Business Training, and Opportunities
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Great Falls College MSU is working with partners to create a CDL Truck Driving program in Great Falls. They need full-time and part-time instructors -- download job description -- and employers to support this important workforce development effort with funds, equipment, and commitments to recruit participants and hire successful graduates. Contact Tammie Hickey at 406-771-5104 or [email protected].
The transition is complete! The D-U-N-S number has gone away, and the SAM.gov-generated Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) isnow the authoritative identifier for all U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and Integrated Award Environment (IAE) systems. If you are registered in SAM.gov (active or not), you have already been assigned a UEI (SAM). To register your business in SAM.gov for the first time, get a UEI (SAM), or to find out more information about how this transition affects you, contact your Great Falls PTAC and connect with Shannon at [email protected]
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.
What’s it like to live in Great Falls Montana? Get a glimpse through the new Great Falls 2022 Livability Magazine! Livability Great Falls is a tool for recruiting people from outside our community and is one of the tools for our Talent Attraction campaign. We also have a Email List to share resumes of trailing partners and others and we promote Hot Jobs – jobs that would entice people to move here. If you are recruiting people from outside Great Falls, click here to join our recruiter email list and learn more.
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. Please direct feedback to Rich at [email protected].
Montana Rapid Retraining funds are available to help more people enroll in workforce training programs and expand industry-driven accelerated workforce training courses. The Great Falls Job Service can assist with Rapid Retaining Efforts. Contact Beth Schmidt at 406-791-5869 or [email protected]. For business strategy/planning help to take advantage of this one-time opportunity, contact our Small Business Development Center (SBDC) regional director, Jason Nitschke at [email protected]
What if you could step back for a couple hours a month, discuss issues with similar size companies and work on your business growth? We invite CEOs to join PeerSpectives, a CEO roundtable system with structured, facilitate protocols. When companies reach the second stage (typically 10+ employees, $1m + in revenue) they have unique challenges and this model is designed to maximize your opportunities. Call Jason Nitschke to discuss, 750.0314. Participation is limited by size and industry. Learn more about this proven system here.
Attention Veteran-Owned Businesses! In less than a year the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Center for Verification and Evaluation (CVE) will transfer to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). As of January 1, 2023, all functions of VA’s CVE will be handled by the SBA. To help make this a seamless transition, we encourage all self-certified SDVOSBs to complete the verification process through the VA now before the transfer becomes effective. Please start the verification process at https://vetbiz.va.gov/vip/. For more information on starting the verification process, contact Lillian Sunwall 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.
The Montana Department of Commerce launched an investment matchmaking website for Montana business projects. The Opportunity Exchange’s - Montana Investment Portal is a website where investors can easily view and connect to projects in the state. Click here to view listed projects. Click here to get your investment project listed on the portal. For help posting your project or property on the Montana Investment Portal, contact Kristian Richardson at 406-841-2032 or [email protected].
Join the Trailing Partner Email Group specifically for 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.
Looking to take control of your business’s financials, increase profit, and improve your bottom line? We have had interest from businesses in scheduling a Profit Mastery course. These courses are scheduled by demand. If you are interested in taking this two-day workshop, contact Jason Nitschke at [email protected] or call (406) 750-0314.
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.
We have Brownfield Clean-Up money that we want to put to work! Our low interest Brownfield Loans can be used to clean up hazardous materials including but not limited to lead paint, asbestos, etc. Are you working on a project that could use some clean up? Call Lillian today to discuss eligibility 406.750.1253 or [email protected].
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.
All of our recorded monthly business strategy webinars are available online for viewing anytime, click them out here.
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Our Mission
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 and Lenders.
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.
For more info, click to our website.
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