City, county commissioners set hearings on Janicki tax abatement request for May 12
City Commissioners voted unanimously during their April 21 meeting to set a public hearing for May 12 on a tax abatement request from Janicki Industries for a site in AgriTech Park, on the east side of Great Falls, with about 185.5 acres within the city limits.
Janicki is considering Great Falls and Twin Falls, Idaho as finalists as it selects the site for an estimated $830 million expansion.
The company has said tax incentives and infrastructure support will be key factors in the final decision.
A Janicki spokesperson told The Electric that the company is no longer considering Butte or East Helena for potential sites.
City Commissioners are considering the abatement during a special meeting, as the commission typically meets the first and third Tuesdays of the month.
County Commissioner Joe Briggs said Janicki submitted two tax abatement applications to the county, one for property and one for equipment. Briggs said the county is also scheduled to consider those requests on May 12.
The equipment abatement is one only considered by the county under state law, Briggs said.
The action to set the public hearing was on the city commission’s consent agenda during their April 21 meeting and commissioners didn’t discuss the request.
City considering tax abatement for Janicki project
During the April 21 city commission meeting, Jolene Schalper of the Great Falls Development Alliance said they’d been working with Janicki for about nine months.
She said the company had sent requests for information to about 20 states and Great Falls stayed in the running in part because of community partners involved.
Schalper said Janicki representatives had touchpoints with about 100 area businesses about what it’s like to do business in Great Falls.
Miriam Wolf, a Fox Farm area resident, told commissioners that her son went to school in Montana but left the state to work for Janicki in Washington.
She said she’d asked her son about his experience with the company and that he’d told her it was a family-run business that gives young engineers large responsibilities, a good place to learn and gain experience.
Great Falls a finalist for Janicki Industries expansion
The project is proposed in phases, with major site work and infrastructure improvements required, according to the city staff report, including:
- road improvements and expansion
- adjustments to utility access points to meet enhanced infrastructure demands
- extensive soil replacement and foundation reinforcement to ensure long‑term structural stability
- construction of multiple new facilities, including training centers, business relations offices, employee campus housing, engineering and design spaces, and expanded manufacturing buildings to support operational needs
Janicki is working with state and local officials to “assess available tools and incentives, recognizing that startup and site‑development costs are critical to the company’s final location decision,” according to the staff report.
The company’s release regarding the two final sites under consideration for the expansion stated that it was “pursuing infrastructure support to offset site development costs.”
The City Commission recently approved its strategic capital investment reserve, or SCIR, to fund infrastructure, funded by last year’s roughly 27 percent utility increase.
City planning infrastructure fund with utility increase; potential new development position
Applications for the first round of funding were due last week.
During an April 20 special commission meeting on the proposed budget, Chris Gaub, city public works director, said the city had received three applications but did not specify who the applicants were.
Those applications are under review, and city staff expect to make the first funding awards in July.
Mark Juras, the city development review coordinator, said that Janicki did not apply for the SCIR funds in this round and the first three applicants were S&L Development, Spencer Woith and Ted Mitchell.
S&L and Woith are longtime developers in the city. Mitchell is the developer proposing the large mixed-use development on the east side of the city.
Staff is currently in process of reviewing the applications for eligibility and verifying the scores.
Janicki has applied to the city for a new and expanding industry tax abatement, available under state law.
The proposed property is within the East Industrial Park tax increment financing district, within which the city bonded for $1.5 million of storm drain improvements in 2020, extending the life of the district to Jan. 1, 2040, according to the city’s long-term debt scheduled included in the budget.
Under state law, the abatement allows a property to be taxed at 50 percent of its taxable value for the first five years after “commencement of construction,” and each year thereafter, the percentage must be increased by equal percentages until the full taxable value is attained in the tenth year.
In subsequent years, the property must be fully taxed.
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Janicki is requesting a phased approval so that each phase will have its own separate tax abatement period beginning upon the issuance of the certificate for occupancy, according to the city staff report.
The sequence of which phases are completed isn’t controlling, rather eligibility is determined by whether each phase receives a certificate of occupancy by its assigned deadline and if it doesn’t the tax benefit for that phase is null and void, according to the staff report.
The proposed phasing, according to the city staff report, is:
- Phase 1: 10-year tax abatement period beginning upon certificate of occupancy deadline of May 31, 2029
- Phase 2: 10-year tax abatement period beginning upon certificate of occupancy deadline of May 31, 2031
- Phase 3: 10-year tax abatement period beginning upon certificate of occupancy deadline of May 31, 2033
- Phase 4: 10-year tax abatement period beginning upon certificate of occupancy deadline of May 31, 2035
State law requires that both the city and county consider the tax abatement on a project-by-project basis.
If one local governing body approves the tax abatement and the other does not, the abatement only applies to mills levied by the approving governing body.
The abatement does affect school funding, but excludes base mills levied by the county for schools and the state education equalization mills.
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In their application, Janicki estimates that, once complete, the full annual tax assessment on the property would be $6,549,250.
With the abatement, the property would generate $3,274,625 in annual taxes, compared to $0 without the abatement.
The city’s current tax abatements are:
In their application materials, Janicki wrote that “availability of the tax benefit for these approved phases is a critical factor in Janaki’s evaluation of Great Falls as the project location.”
“We see great opportunity in Great Falls, however, the scale of upfront investment required to build a campus of this size means that competitive tax and infrastructure support will be a deciding factor in where we ultimately build,” Nick Lavacca, Janicki community relations manager, wrote in the application materials.
City staff wrote in their staff report that the proposed Janicki facility would “generate significant taxable value and sustain economic activity well beyond the abatement period. Transforming underdeveloped land into an advanced manufacturing campus provides a lasting contribution to the city’s tax base and establishes a durable economic anchor that continues to drive reinvestment in adjacent commercial and industrial areas.”
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Building within the AgriTech Park “ensures that past investments in utilities, transportation access, and rail infrastructure achieve their intended economic return. This strengthens the district’s foundation and encourages additional private capital to follow.”
If Great Falls is selected, the Janicki project “would lead to a significant increase in taxable value and economic activity, long after the abatement period. As the property transitions from underdeveloped land to a fully built-out advanced manufacturing campus, it will contribute substantially to the city’s tax base. More importantly, it establishes a durable economic anchor that drives continued reinvestment in surrounding commercial and industrial areas,” staff wrote.
In an April 17 Facebook post, Mayor Cory Reeves wrote that “this is the kind of opportunity that can shape the future of our city for generations. Opportunities like this don’t come around often, and the impact would be felt across our entire community.”
Montana Specialty Mills breaks ground in AgriTech Park [2017]
Reeves wrote that he met with Janicki leadership “about why Great Falls is the right place for them. Now, let’s be real. This isn’t a done deal. We’re competing with other communities, and decisions like this come down to a lot of factors. But I can promise you this, we are in the fight, and we are putting our best foot forward. Great Falls is hungry for growth. We are ready for opportunity. And we will continue to do everything we can to bring projects like this home.”
Commissioner Joe McKenney posted on Facebook that it’s “the kind of opportunity that can help shape the future of our community for decades. And it did not happen by accident. It reflects something important about the culture we are building in Great Falls. More and more, our city leaders are asking the right question: How do we get to yes? That mindset matters. We do not land opportunities like this by being slow, divided, or afraid to move. We do it by being ready. We do it by being responsive. And we do it by working together. Nothing is final yet. There is more work ahead. But Great Falls is in the room, being taken seriously, and competing for something truly transformational.”
Developers requesting tax abatements for three projects [2020]
He wrote that the Great Falls Development Alliance deserved credit for the potential deal, and that it “says something important that Great Falls stayed competitive because the AgriTech Park is shovel-ready. Speed matters. Readiness matters. Preparation matters.”
Commissioner Rick Tryon posted to social media that the Janicki project “would be a huge game changer for Great Falls. It’s not a done deal yet, but the company owners are very impressed with Great Falls and GFDA and city staff and leadership are working hard to close the deal. I expect we’ll see more of these kinds of opportunities come up more and more for Great Falls going forward because we are changing the business and development climate and culture here, and ‘we’ means our entire community.”
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