The city planning board voted unanimously during their Sept. 9 meeting to recommend approval of up to $300,000 in airport tax increment financing funds toward the second phase of commercial and industrial development on the 300 acres of airport owned land west of the county jail.
That’s the maximum available in the Great Falls International Airport Tax Increment Financing Industrial District fund, according to city planning staff.
The city planning board reviews TIF requests for four of the city’s five TIF districts. The downtown TIF district requests are reviewed by the Downtown Development Partnership.
Those bodies review and vote to make recommendations on TIF request and the City Commission has the final say.
The 300 acres west of the jail off Ulm Frontage Road is zoned airport industrial and the first phase is under construction.
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The airport TIF district was adopted by city commissioners in November 2008 and the boundaries were amended in September 2009.
Before 1989, tax increment could only be used for rehabilitation efforts within urban renewal districts, but the Legislature amended the Montana Urban Renewal laws to allow municipalities to create industrial TIFs to help develop and retain secondary, value-added industries, according to city staff, to include those that turn raw resources into processed substances from which industrial or consumer products are made.
The district is designed to foster development of secondary value added industries and promote aviation related economic development to improve employment opportunities and expand the city’s tax base, Lonnie Hill, deputy city planning director, told the board.
The Great Falls International Airport Authority is requesting up to $300,000 in TIF funds toward the second phase of the development, building another four to six 2,400-square-foot bays marketed for commercial and/or industrial use, according to city staff.
In 2021, the city commission approved the first phase, which included installation of water, sewer, stormwater, electrical and data infrastructure, and regional stormwater pond and access points, Hill said.
That phase was completed in June 2024 and now supports three 2,4000-square-foot bays, which are leased to the Peterbilt dealership.
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The second phase includes the installation of electrical and data lines, and an extension of the water and sewer lines along Ulm Frontage Road, closing the water line loop that serves the west side of the frontage road, Hill said.
John Faulkner, airport director, said that he’s been monitoring the market during his tenure here and there wasn’t a lot of light industrial space available, and an idea crystalized when he was getting his vehicle bumper repaired with a person working out of a rented garage.
We’d “been looking for a way to bring 300 acres along interstate into development as an economic development tool for the community. We’ve got to get out there and try to make some of our own luck in growing the community and light industrial space is something that’s really in short supply.”
Faulkner said the Great Falls Development Alliance has moved into the heavy industrial space with the AgriTech Park on the east side of town near Malmstrom Air Force Base, so the airport authority moved forward with the light industrial side.
He said they immediately filled the three bays built in the first phase and the goal is to create this flexible space that can be subdivided between individual bays if needed.
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The airport board heard about the construction proposal during their work session at the end of August for the estimated $4.5 million to build the next six bays. They’ll be asked to formally consider that proposal during their monthly meeting at the end of September, Faulkner said.
He said they have the space to go out to thirteen bays and can accommodate a request for 30,000-square-foot space and completion of the second phase will leave about 25 acres of other lots that can be developed through projects brought to the airport.
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Faulkner said that over the last year or so, the airport had received a number of calls from businesses with some Canadian connection, either doing business there or here and shipping into the other.
Those companies, he said, are “looking at the tariff environment and looking to have a footprint in Great Falls to assemble some products and avoid tariffs.”
The challenge is they’re looking to move quickly, so Faulkner said they need to get building to capture some of that business and they have some potential tenants they think will be good fits for the new bays.
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“We think this is the right time to get out there an extend this development, and create tat additional space so we can continue to grab some of these opportunities as they come through the community,” Faulkner said.
One of the planning board members asked about the potential traffic in the area with recent development.
Faulkner said they’d been considering large retail options years ago when they sent traffic counts to the Montana Department of Transportation, but have since shifted to the light industrial and anticipate a lot of small fabricators and similar businesses in the condos, with less impact to traffic.
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Tory Mills, planning board chair, said that he met with a Canadian HVAC manufacturer a few months ago who said they couldn’t find a space in Great Falls so “there’s definitely a need.”
Faulkner said they hear that a lot and with building costs being high, they’ve been partnering with Dick Anderson Construction with a plan set and efforts to lower costs as they build, making them more attainable for small businesses.
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Hill said that there is an MDT project working its way through the process to reconfigure the interstate ramps at Gore Hill.
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MDT is proposing adding roundabouts at those interchanges and adding an additional lane going up the hill dedicated for airport traffic, and relocating the service road to south along the Town Pump property.
That project is currently in the design phase and more information is here.
