Director

Description:

The Great Falls Development Alliance (GFDA) is a regional public/private economic development organization that serves the 13-county urban/rural/tribal Great Falls Montana trade area. We are a certified Community Development Financial Institution, formed as a Montana nonprofit corporation with charitable 501 (c) 3 status. Our economic development efforts include business retention and expansion, business attraction, entrepreneurship, gap/bridge financing, brownfields redevelopment, talent attraction, and downtown/riverfront revitalization.

We have built an exceptional, full-time professional economic development team. We host a Montana Small Business Development Center, APEX Accelerator and Food & Ag Development Center and provide office space to the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center. We helped create and are partners in the Montana Defense Alliance, Great Falls Downtown Development Partnership, and Great Falls Tourism Alliance. We have $35 million in loan capital, and through our non-profit affiliate, High Plains Financial, offer SBA 504 loans statewide. GFDA is the developer of the Great Falls AgriTech Park, a 1,000+ acre BNSF Premier certified rail industrial park.

GFDA is a partnership comprised of a wide array of partners including Cascade County, the Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, NeighborWorks Great Falls, Great Falls Tourism, Great Falls International Airport, Great Falls Public Schools, the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Great Falls College Montana State University, the University of Providence, Great Falls Business Improvement District, Central Montana Building Trades, Great Falls Homebuilders Association, and over one hundred fifty businesses in the region.

GFDA was the first economic development organization in the Rocky Mountain West to earn accreditation from the International Economic Development Council. We continue to earn the Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid/GuideStar. Our efforts have won awards from the National Association of Development Organizations, the International Economic Development Council, the National Brownfield Conference, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the Montana Economic Developers Association.