Call center, distributor look at Great Falls

While local development types are awaiting word on a possible 300-job information-processing center that could land in Great Falls, two other job prospects are lining up visits to the Electric City, officials say.

One visitor, dubbed "Las Vegas" by the folks at the Great Falls Development Authority, is looking for a site for a 300-person call center with jobs that would pay in the $9 per hour range. A real estate company working with the company, presumably based in Vegas, is also eyeing sites in Wyoming, Idaho and North Dakota.

By John Kramer

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20040516/localnews/434162.html

Jerry Chavez, GFDA’s marketing vice president, noted "We don’t know who it is," a fact that leaves development types a bit uneasy.

The other prospect involves a company in the veterinary products field seeking a site for a distribution center. Officials are not releasing the name or many details about the prospect or the jobs it could bring, citing competitive concerns.

Both prospects are looking at visits within the month, Chavez says.

Slice of cheesecake?

While the riverfront building remains empty with little sign of life, work on a Cheesecake Cafe is progressing, folks involved say.

Hiring decisions on management types could come soon, while the former Holman Interiors building at 2 Central Ave. W. is undergoing pre-renovation scrutiny, said Mike Loy, who with his spouse, Melaine, has purchased the Cheesecake Cafe franchise.

Plans for the 170-seat restaurant were announced in late March, with opening slated for this summer. There’s apparently been no big change to that timetable.

"It’s pretty much the slow part of the process right now," Loy said last week. "The architects and engineers all have to have their say."

Feeling the squeeze

What do bookmobiles, museums and the Founding the Future campaign at the Great Falls Development Authority have in common?

All are feeling the Cascade County budget squeeze. County commissioners have axed a $10,000 contribution to the development authority’s job recruitment fund.

"When we are cutting services to county residents, we don’t feel we can donate that money at this particular time," said Lance Olson, a county commissioner.

In a letter to the GFDA, commissioners said "the infinite and ongoing Montana PPL tax protest" is the biggest barrier to a donation.

Olson said the commissioners may reconsider the donation later if the budget picture improves. There is no philosophical quarrel with the development group, he said.

It’s fair to note that the county support of the development authority has been strong. In early April, the county gave $80,000 in Community Development Block grant money to the GFDA to help fund a revolving loan program.

John Kramer, the GFDA president, told board members last week that a contribution of $10,000 from the Montana Contractors Association would offset the loss of county money.

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Center seeks higher-tech future

Start-up businesses get a boost from BID-UGF project, but high-tech infrastructure is under used, officials say

By JAMES E. LARCOMBE

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20040516/localnews/434163.html

In a cozy but neat office, complete with tall windows and exposed red brick, Ben Chovanak has found a business start.

As much as he likes his work home, he and his fledgling enterprise, Digital Concepts, are moving on to bigger quarters after just six months.

"This was a good stepping stone for me," Chovanak said of his small office in the University of Great Falls Business Development Center on the third floor of the building at 417 Central Ave.

While the technology center, developed by the Great Falls Business Improvement District, was aimed at attracting and nurturing high-tech ventures, its first 18 months of operation have been less glamorous.

Instead of high-tech companies, the center has served small business in need of inexpensive rent and business support services such as telephones, fax machines and Internet access.

The bottom line, according to Deb Kottel, director of the UGF center, and Greg Madson, executive director of the BID, is that there isn’t much demand for the center’s high-tech infrastructure in Great Falls these days.

"I think things are going differently than what we had in mind," said Kottel. "What we’ve found is a constant need for small businesses to land somewhere."

The business technology center operated by UGF is home to five small businesses, including Digital Concepts, Chovanak’s publishing company, Exergy Development Group, which is working with United Materials Inc. on a commercial wind farm near Great Falls, Transload Distribution Trade Association, a railroad trade group, a hearing-aid business, and Shortgrass Wed Development, which relocated to the center from another downtown location.

Several other enterprises have been part of the center, which is intended to be an incubator for small, start-up firms. One business, a cooperative advertising venture, has moved out to its own building, while another firm failed, according to Kottel.

The UGF incubator is part of a broader Downtown Technology Center developed by the BID using a $558,000 grant from the federal Economic Development Administration, $90,000 of its own in matching money and smaller contributions from a couple of private donors.

The BID leases space in the tech center to UGF, Vision Net, a video conferencing and Internet firm, iConnect, a Helena-based company that manages and markets the building’s data center, and International Malting Co., which is renting space until office space is available at its $60 million plant north of Great Falls.

The key assets of the tech center are a swanky multimedia conference studio and a data center featuring fiber-optic and Internet services aimed at business users. Both the studio and data center have seen relatively little use, most agree.

"We believe it’s probably been underused," said Bill Baillie, the director of sales and marketing for Great Falls-based Vision Net Inc. The multimedia center, which features plasma TVs, video monitors and remote microphones that could accommodate several dozen people at video conferences or distance learning events.

Baillie said a number of attorneys and other professionals have used the center for video conferences.

"But it could be used a lot more by other businesses," he said. "There is lots of time available there."

The presence of at least five other similar conferencing facilities in Great Falls may be hampering demand at the downtown center, Baillie noted.

"It’s a beautiful facility and there are certain things its tailor-made for," he said.

Madson says iConnect has said it plans to hire a local manager to promote the data center, which provides a climate-controlled, secure environment for computer servers and other equipment. It also houses the building’s fiber-optic and Internet backbone.

"They haven’t been able to spend a lot of time in this facility," Madson said of iConnect. "But now they should be able to spend more time on marketing and that will be good."

Madson and members of the BID board recently visited the Tech Ranch, a Bozeman high-tech incubator, looking for ideas to jump-start the tech center. The BID has also considered hiring a temporary employee to market and promote the center, an idea that has since been shelved.

Madson said the leases with iConnect, Vision Net and UGF call for them to manage and market the particular pieces of the center.

"The BID is still going to be the owner and landlord," Madson said. "But I don’t operate or market the facility in any way."

The BID is made up of downtown property owners who pay annual assessments and hope to improve and develop the city center. It paid just a dollar for the Johnson Hotel building and has sold all the space in the four-story building to businesses, while continuing to own the floor that houses the tech center.

The most vocal critic of the tech center and the BID is Doug Ormseth, who operates Shortgrass Web Development and was the original tenant in the UGF business center. Ormseth was also director of the downtown agency prior to Madson.

Ormseth says the BID has failed to follow through on providing promised amenities in the center and that he would move his business if it were financially feasible.

"I think it’s the BID’s job to follow through" on running and developing the center, Ormseth said. "They disagree with me."

While there have been requests for additional technology services and upgrades, many of the requests could not be paid for under the restrictions of the federal EDA grant, Madson says.

"There have been complaints and criticism that it’s not been a technology center," said Madson. "But the technology here has served every business."

The BID director noted the agency has spent more than $600,000 on the tech center.

Kottel, who also directs graduate programs at UGF, says she visits the business center an average of three times per week.

Kottel said she gave up an office to an incubator tenant and hasn’t reclaimed any space since. The original plan was to have an office and a largely full-time director in the business center.

She says UGF remains committed to running the center and has not lost a significant amount of money on its operation. The school has budgeted about $10,000 per year for its operation.

Tenants in the incubator pay an average of $100 per month rent and have access to a phone system, fax and copy machine and are provided furniture. Tenants help pay for utilities. The charges average $125 every four months for each tenant, Kottel said.

"I think we have been relatively successful," she said, referring to the incubator. "These first two years have been interesting, there has been a learning curve, both for the tenants and us."

Kottel and Madson say the incubator and larger tech center have the ability to work with high-tech technology companies, if the demand arises.

"I think it’s OK that we are accommodating the kinds of businesses that are in our community," Madson added.

As for Chovanak, the departing tenant, the months in the UGF incubator were fruitful. Assistance in areas like marketing and business planning would help make the center more useful, he says.

"It’s got great potential," Chovanak said. "There are some good things there. It’s just got to be developed to the next level."