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5/04/2026
City hopes tax incentives will coax aerospace company to Great Falls
In hopes of luring aerospace company Janicki to Great Falls, the city is offering tax incentives similar to those it gave to Calumet’s biofuel expansion, Montana Renewables.
If Janicki comes to town, the company has said it will create about 1,000 jobs and invest more than $800 million in new development.
The company, based out of Sedro-Woolley, Washington, is also considering an area near Twin Falls, Idaho, for the expansion. It plans to announce its new location in late May.
“We see great opportunity in these communities; however, the scale of upfront investment required to build a campus of this size means that competitive tax and infrastructure support will be a key factor in where we ultimately build,” Nick Lavacca, Janikci’s community relations manager, said in an April press release.
When Calumet developed its biodiesel fuel expansion, Montana Renewables, in 2022, Great Falls granted the company reduced taxes on about $50 million in city-assessed property value. The company pays half of the owed taxes for the first five years, followed by 60% in the sixth year, 70% in the seventh year and so on until it pays the full amount in the tenth year and beyond.
Great Falls is offering Janicki a similar deal, except that each of the company’s four major projects, scheduled for completion between 2029 and 2035, would start its own 10-year clock.
The property, located just northwest of Malmstrom Air Force Base, also falls inside the East Industrial Park tax increment financing district, created in 2013. A TIF diverts some local property taxes from the district to a fund reserved for economic development. When a district is created, taxing authorities establish a benchmark based on current property values. They then use those valuations to calculate the amount of tax revenue properties pay each year for city, county and school district operations for the life of the district.
If property values rise, as they typically do after property owners invest in revitalization or development, the properties still pay taxes on the new value, but that “increment” is instead diverted to the economic development fund that pays for infrastructure like streets, sidewalks and water lines in the district. Then, when the district expires after 15 years to 40 years, the increment is merged back into the community’s general tax base.
That means Janicki’s taxes would go towards the TIF, not into the general fund, according to Brock Cherry, director of community development and planning.
The city will discuss the proposed tax incentives during a special meeting May 12 at 5 p.m.
Janicki also proposed two tax abatements to Cascade County, according to Commissioner Eric Hinebauch. Those applications will become public a week before the commission discusses them during its own May 12 meeting at 9:30 a.m.
New shelves coming to the History Museum & Research Center
The History Museum & Research Center in Great Falls is constructing new shelving to enable more elaborate exhibitions and better preserve its artifacts, according to Ashleigh McCann, the museum’s collection curator and organization spokesperson. The museum hopes to complete the new storage and relocate artifacts by the end of this fall.
When International Harvester operated from the building in 1929, it used the third floor as a tractor showroom. The company raised tractors via a freight elevator that the museum now uses to lift large artifacts, such as two phone booths and a couple of wagons. The third floor is otherwise cluttered.
Gibson & Hill Historical Society is volunteering to construct the new shelves, and the museum doesn’t plan to spend more because the material is leftover from when the building was a school supply business in the 1950s.
“And thankfully so, because the building came with these mid-century shelving units. And I don’t know what we would do if our organization didn’t get these,” McCain said.
In 2024, museum staff deconstructed a large number of shelves on the second floor during major renovations. Owen and Gayle Robinson donated $500,000, which the museum leveraged with grants to renovate the second floor. The development included a climate-controlled archive and additional space for storing artifacts.
Now, volunteers and staff are constructing shelving on the third floor, which should create enough space for workers to move all objects onto the shelves.
“That’s the hope. And that’s the part that’s gonna take the most time,” McCain said.
After the new shelves are completed, the third floor will hold more durable objects, and the second floor will be reserved for more sensitive items.
The Montana History Museum of Great Falls presents a new exhibition about once a year. The museum often leaves them up for multiple years alongside permanent exhibits. Check out what they’re featuring now.
Snapshot
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3 Questions For
Great Falls’ new parks and recreation director, Toby Hazelbaker, last month replaced Jessica Compton, who had run the organization since the spring of 2025, when former Director Steve Herrig resigned. Before Hazelbaker came to Great Falls, he was the parks director in Salt Lake City. He recently sat with MTFP to answer a few questions. His responses have been lightly edited for clarity.
MTFP: What drew you to Great Falls?
Hazelbaker: Having worked for larger cities that are growing very rapidly, especially Salt Lake City, which is sort of my hometown, it felt like they had lost their soul. What people were being drawn to the Willamette Valley, where I worked near Portland, or being drawn to Salt Lake City nowadays — they’re actually not getting what they think they’re getting. These areas politically, socially, have lost their roots, have lost connection with their roots, because of the quick influx of people from out of town — from large urban areas — that came in. And that was distasteful to me. And I wanted to go somewhere that still had connection with who they are, that weren’t growing so rapidly that they kind of outpaced themselves.
MTFP: Why do you care about this work?
Hazelbaker: Early in my life, being outdoors, socializing with people, getting to meet different people at the ball field or playing basketball as a kid, it just made sense to me to have something in your life that isn’t the normal day-to-day drudgery of going to school or going to work. And everyone called it parks and recreation. I went on to get a degree in recreation management, and I started to think about it philosophically, and, at least from my perspective, it’s a little bit glib to just call it recreation. I like to break it down and pronounce it re-creation. If you go out and you engage in your sport in your way, or just watching the sunset, … it’s almost a spiritual experience. It literally recreates you, body and soul, to go out and jog in the morning, if that’s your thing. Or to go to water aerobics with some of your friends, if that’s your thing. That socialization, that doing something physical, moving and then connecting with the natural world is critical, as critical as having a fire department, as having public services that work well. Communities need to have places to gather to connect with one another, but to recreate themselves.
MTFP: What direction do you want to move the department?
Hazelbaker: My mantra, professionally, is to standardize, to professionalize, and to hold accountable. So that’s for my people internally. Public-facing, I would hope to espouse a mantra that I came up with some time ago: The parks are clean, green and safe. Those words mean a lot just at face value, but as you go a little bit deeper, if a slide has a crack in it, if a swing breaks, we’ll go make that safe. But is the park safe to be in? Do you feel safe walking in the park? Do you feel safe having your kids running around in the park? Is it green? Are we overusing water? Are we using chemicals the wrong way? Could we be doing more naturalization in and around our parks? And clean is everything from trash to the type of energy we use in our parks to the look of a park as you go by. Not just is it picked up, but does it have a respectable look to it. So I like to keep it simple and deliver on some of those mantras of my own.
5 Things to Know in Great Falls
Great Falls College will expand its veterinary program through a roughly $630,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The university will use the money to increase students’ access to the program, such as paying for rabies vaccines and licensing exam fees.
Luna Coffee Bar will host an art show with live music May 8 at 6:30 p.m. The shop, at 9 Fifth St. N., will feature art by Melisa Trombley and live music by Cale Younce.
Parents trying to prevent St. Patrick’s Academy East campus from closing say they have raised $100,000 as of April 30, according to KRTV. In an early-April interview with Montana Free Press, School Director Laura O’Neill said the school would need $300,000 and increased enrollment to stay open.
Great Falls Public Library is partnering with YWCA Great Falls and the Little Shell Tribe to commemorate Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Day May 5. The event will begin at 5 p.m. with a flower release on the east side of the Central Avenue Bridge. At 6:30, advocate Jen Murphy will read her children’s book, “More Like Her,” and present her film, “Not Afraid.”
The Great Falls Symphony is putting on a concert orchestrated by Daniel Black May 9 at 7:30 p.m. Black is one of six candidates to take over as the symphony’s director. The symphony will announce its new director in June.
