Great Falls Airport board explores economic development issues

Members hoping to capitalize on potential of customs, FedEx

By JO DEE BLACK
Tribune Staff Writer

The agenda for Great Falls International Airport Authority’s board meeting Tuesday sounded a lot like an economic development caucus.

Potential deals using FedEx’s hub station at the airport to entice a couple of businesses was discussed. The board also talked of luring one of three often-rumored restaurant chains to town.

Airport Director Cynthia Schultz said she’s been working with personnel from the Great Falls Development Authority to set up a deal to fly sensitive diagnostic equipment in from Korea.

The Korean company, which nobody in the know will name, makes the equipment and ships it through Los Angeles to an American business that sells it. It takes Los Angeles customs agents about 10 days to clear the product at the busy port.

Great Falls Development Authority President John Kramer is pitching the Electric City airport, where the product can be cleared in a day.

A speedy turnaround was Kramer’s first pitch, but it turns out it may be much cheaper to clear customs in Great Falls than in metropolitan ports. A test run will take place by Monday, and after that final numbers can be tallied, Kramer said.

The Korean deal is on Great Falls Development’s hot list, said Jerry Chavez, the vice president of marketing. The organization lists deals as hot, active or pending by order of their potential to close, he said.

Another deal, which Kramer said is very preliminary, would involve a Texas-based electronics retail business. He won’t name that business either.

The business sells various electronics via the Internet, but is losing late-afternoon sales to a competitor based in Thief River Falls, Minn., Schultz said.

The Minnesota competitor is closer to a FedEx hub that flies to the main overnight hub in Memphis at 8 p.m., Schultz said.

A receptionist at the Thief River Falls Chamber of Commerce said the business is named Digi-Key Corp.

The last overnight delivery flight the Texas company has access to leaves in the late afternoon, Schultz said.

If the Texas company moved to Great Falls, it could ship out orders via FedEx as late as 8:45 p.m., she said.

The deal could have good employment potential if it’s landed. Digi-Key employs 1,200 people at its 600,000-square-foot warehouse in Thief River Falls, Schultz said.

Both Schultz and Kramer said there is still plenty of work to do before the deal can be pitched.

Airport Board Chairwoman Deb Kottel was ready to do some pitching of her own, however. With an $8.5 million renovation finishing up, the airport is ready to lease out an 8,000-square-foot space to a restaurant on the newly added third floor.

"The airport already has a liquor and gambling license that can be used there," Kottel said. "We are looking for a franchise, like a Red Lobster, an Olive Garden, an Outback."

The restaurant space is on the new third-floor addition on the terminal’s east end. The south half of the addition is the banquet room, christened Top of the Falls by the board Tuesday. The banquet room, along with the coffee shop and cafe on the second floor, are run by Air Host — the airport’s longtime food service.

But the north-facing side of the third floor was built intending to lease to another restaurant operator. Both sides have full walls of windows offering an impressive panoramic view of Great Falls and the prairie and foothills to the west.

Since a liquor license in Great Falls typically fetches somewhere between $300,000 and $400,000, leasing an existing license in a beautiful facility should be appealing, Kottel said.

Parking at the airport for restaurant patrons will be free, she added.

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