MEP, long viewed as a business recruiter and jobs builder, has developed a number of new initiatives that it believes will have broader community impacts. It found success in recent years by growing revenue guarantees to attract new air service to Missoula, and it’s deploying a similar effort to attract investment to the city’s new opportunity zone.

“It’s hard to get big capital to invest in anything in Missoula because it’s such a tiny market,” said Grant Kier, executive director at MEP.

By Martin Kidston