Mired by a stagnant population while Montana’s other larger cities have enjoyed relative economic booms, Great Falls has long had a bit of an underdog reputation. The city lagged behind Missoula, Kalispell, Bozeman, Billings and Helena in population growth since 2010. Great Falls was an outlie r among larger cities from 2023 to 2024, losing residents. Even the city’s new growth policy notes Great Falls’ steady population level, which has hovered between 57,000 and 61,000 residents since 2000. But the conversation has recently changed, at least locally, and a series of incoming developments has residents feeling like the tide is turning in the Electric City’s favor. “For a long time, I think it seemed like we were swimming uphill,” said Joe Briggs, a Cascade County commissioner since 2005. “But everything is coming together for Cascade County. It’s a challenging time, but I think it’s going to be a fun time.” Regional projects in various stages include large residential developments, a major commercial center, a growing higher education sector and a massive upgrade to Malmstrom’s missile field, all of which suggest that the long-awaited momentum is building. The most conspicuous incoming development is Janicki Industries, an aerospace and marine parts manufacturer based in Washington state that chose Great Falls as its third major location. The company plans to break ground next month on a massive eastside facility that’s billed as an $800 million investment that will employ more than 1,000 people over time. Briggs and other officials pointed out that the groundwork for these projects has been laid for decades. “Janicki is the culmination of a lot of effort for a long time,” Briggs said. “And everything is coming to a head at the same time as the Sentinel [missile] project. This community is going to change, and I truly believe it’s going to change for the better.” In the ’90s, Great Falls was recovering from the 1981 closure of the ACM smelter and saw the 1997 deactivation of Malmstrom’s runway following the relocation of a refueling squadron. The town needed to diversify and was leaning heavily on Malmstrom and Benefis Health System as economic engines. “We just didn’t see a replacement for that economic growth through the ’80s and ’90s,” said Jolene Schalper, executive vice president of the Great Falls Development Alliance. “But we reformulated how we approached our community growth then. We took time in the early 2000s to say, as a community, ‘We need to hone in on the key elements here.'” One area that GFDA focused on was the industrial sector. Schalper said Great Falls was underperforming given the level of industrial activity in the region. That led the organization to acquire and develop the land for the AgriTech Park on the east end of town about 15 years ago. “Montana Specialty Mills was the first to build out there, and they’ve expanded twice since then,” Schalper said. Montana Specialty Mills relocated from the West Bank area, a former industrial site across the river from downtown Great Falls that has since been revitalized into a commercial and parkland development. Great Falls is poised to grow amid a slate of new development announcements in recent years. Credit: Matt Hudson / MTFP Another focus was downtown. Schalper characterized downtown as a microcosm of a city’s vibrance and the first area visitors or prospective residents want to see. The city approved a downtown renewal plan in 2012 that included financing to pay for improvements. That effort set the stage for companies like Enbar, Inc., which opened an upscale cocktail bar in 2017 and has since expanded to include a sandwich shop, an arcade, an ice cream shop and its concert venue, The Newberry. The company also spearheaded a downtown concert series and, in 2024, acquired the Great Falls Voyagers, which play in the smallest professional baseball market in the country. “Everyone in our group is local. Everyone is passionate about Great Falls,” said Enbar President Scott Reasoner. “And I just think that’s rare. You don’t see a lot of that. Many communities in our state have grown due to outside investment.” Reasoner said the group pooled resources from investors who wanted to see amenities in Great Falls, even if the future was uncertain. Many eateries had come and gone in the downtown district, but he drew confidence from longtime establishments like the Sip ‘N Dip and newer mainstays like Mighty Mo Brewing. Now that Great Falls is seeing more outside investment, including the recent additions of multiple chain restaurants, Reasoner said he welcomes this new phase. “It’s still risky in Great Falls,” he said, “but it’s feeling better.” Bob Kelly, who was Great Falls’ mayor from 2016 to 2024 and served on the city commission prior to that, said that, more than a decade ago, city officials focused on policies that lowered the barriers to entry for businesses to come to Great Falls. “When I started in public office, there was always a question of whether we were looking forward or looking to stay the same,” Kelly said. “We were trying to give an image to what was called at the time ‘business-friendly.’” There are echoes of that focus today. Current City Commissioner Joe McKenney often recalls a mantra, “get to yes,” which reflects an effort to ease bureaucratic burdens imposed by local governments on private developers and business owners. McKenney joined other commissioners in recent years to approve a development fund aimed at building utility capacity across Great Falls. Private developers can apply for funding to help build utility infrastructure. The commission also revised some review requirements for builders working in difficult soils to ease paperwork for certain properties. Schalper said that GFDA primarily works with existing businesses. The priority for business owners right now is positioning themselves for a future when workers might have more options. “We’re really working with businesses now to take a look at how competitive you are,” she said. “Where are your wages on a local level, state level, national level?” The task for local governments will be to brace for change. Primarily, that’s in the form of infrastructure. The city’s new development fund, called the “strategic capital investment reserve,” aims to upsize water and sewer pipes in areas that will see residential growth. Traffic will be top of mind for current residents as well. Briggs said he recently met with a Montana Department of Transportation official about adding capacity to what he called lingering “transportation issues,” including the need for bypasses to alleviate traffic through town. The Great Falls Civic Center is seen on Oct. 23, 2025, in Great Falls. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America “Those need to come back front and center, both for Sentinel and overall growth,” Briggs said. “We’ve reached another capacity point.” One local challenge is that much of the public investment will need to come before they see revenue gains from incoming projects. It takes time for new businesses to have their properties appraised and pay taxes. And Janicki, for example, will build within a tax increment financing district that will tie up new property tax revenue for about a decade. Great Falls City Manager Greg Doyon addressed the issue briefly during a budget presentation to the city commission earlier this month. “You will ask me: ‘We keep struggling on our revenue front, what are some of the things that we can do?'” Doyon said. “Well, some of the things that we can do is start to retire some TIF districts.” Looking broadly at the local economic landscape, Schalper described a snowball effect in which a big announcement catches the attention of ancillary businesses that might relocate to Great Falls to support Janicki or the Air Force’s Sentinel project. The town may look more appealing to large, commercial home builders. Success begets success. “These types of businesses and these types of announcements really prove the market for others,” Schalper said. “So we’ll start seeing other local businesses expand now. We’ll see more housing develop because developers see this as a safe market to grow.” While Janicki is the current hot topic in local development, several pieces have fallen into place in recent years — from housing to healthcare to education — leaving officials feeling that a new chapter is near. Another highly anticipated project is the Sentinel missile upgrade, a $140 billion effort from the U.S. Department of Defense that will replace the current fleet of Minuteman III nuclear missiles. Malmstrom Air Force Base is home to one of three missile wings, and the Sentinel project will require the construction of hundreds of new missile silos and thousands of miles of underground cabling. Perhaps most importantly, Sentinel represents a significant investment in the base’s future, which has long been the region’s top employer. Across town, the Montana Air National Guard is reportedly planning $300 million in upgrades at its Great Falls International Airport location. Also under development at the airport is a suite of light industrial buildings that the Great Falls International Airport Authority has been steadily building and leasing. Notable recent announcements include a Jeremiah Johnson brewery and an indoor basketball facility. Mitchell Development and Investments of Great Falls is pursuing a 100-acre commercial and residential development called The Falls on Great Falls’ east end. While there has been little action so far, roadside signs have recently appeared as advertising to future tenants. Crews have broken ground on the Meadview Village housing development. The 27-acre project is expected to add 163 single-family homes to Great Falls’ east side. Touro University, which opened a new medical school in 2023, recently announced plans to add nursing and law schools in Great Falls. The nursing school will have company from another nursing school that Montana State University opened last fall in Great Falls’ hospital district. And Benefis Health System, the city’s top private employer, has multiple developments in progress. Those include a senior housing project and the Goodnow Healthy Aging Center, a new 15,000-square-foot facility nearing completion. While the hype is reaching new peaks in Great Falls, it has been building for a while. “This has been a process,” Commissioner Briggs said. “It’s not an event.” The post Great Falls finally getting its turn at economic boom, city leaders say appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less