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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-23-26 Public Comment - J. Pape - SWMBIA - Please forward to the CommissionFrom:Mike Maas To:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:FW: [EXTERNAL]Please forward to the Commission Date:Wednesday, September 23, 2026 12:38:28 PM Attachments:SWMBIA_Board_Letter_Opportunity_Zones_City_Commission.pdf -----Original Message----- From: Jerry Pape <jpape@espt.com>Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2026 12:23 PMTo: Mike Maas <Mike.Maas@bozemanmt.gov>Subject: [EXTERNAL]Please forward to the Commission CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unlessyou recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Mike, I hope you and the family are well. I am getting to experience the "Petri Dish" problem. Ollie gave both Jules and I adreadful cold and his moved toward pneumonia and strep, and Jules got strep. I knew this was coming, but had nowidea it would make us ill for 6 weeks... Please confirm receipt and forward the attachment from SWMBIA to the Commission. Thanks, JP --Jerry Pape, PresidentExcalibur, Inc.www.espt.com(406) 579-3636 BUILDING COMMUNITIES 1716 W. MAIN ST., STE. 8G · BOZEMAN, MT 59715 (406) 585-8181 · SWMBIA.ORG September 23, 2026 Mayor and City Commission City of Bozeman · 121 N. Rouse Avenue Bozeman, MT 59715 F R O M T H E B O A R D O F D I R E C T O R S SUPPORT FOR THE OPPORTUNITY ZONE PROGRAM AND THE NOMINATION OF CENSUS TRACT 11.02 Mayor and Commissioners, The Southwest Montana Building Industry Association represents the builders, developers, contractors, suppliers, and trade partners who put up the housing and commercial construction this region runs on. Our members build the homes southwest Montana needs and generate much of the tax base that pays for the services around them. The Board writes to support the Opportunity Zone program, and to ask that Census Tract 11.02 be included in Montana’s Opportunity Zone 2.0 nominations. Attainable housing remains the defining constraint on this region’s economy, and Opportunity Zones are one of the few federal tools that move private capital — not appropriations — into housing. In southwest Montana that capital has produced finished units, not renderings; the program has done here what it was written to do. We would ask that one distinction be kept in view. For a tract that already carries the designation, non-renewal is not a neutral result — it is the withdrawal of a tool currently in use, with vertical development already designed and underwritten against it. Those projects do not relocate; they are postponed, repriced, or shelved, and the subcontractors, suppliers, and vendors downstream absorb the difference. Census Tract 11.02 — roughly 4,990 acres centered near Kagy Boulevard and South 19th Avenue — is the clearest case of that in front of you. The tract already carries the Opportunity Zone 1.0 designation and will lose it at the end of 2028 if it is not renewed. Because Opportunity Zone 1.0 required little project-level reporting and tract-level figures for a state our size are largely suppressed, no record of what it produced existed until the Bozeman Development Consortium assembled one: 752 homes built or under construction with Opportunity Zone capital, roughly $331 million in development value, and more than $275 million in further vertical development designed and waiting on renewal. Those figures track with what our members see in the field, and we ask that they be examined before 11.02 is left off the list. For those reasons, the Board respectfully asks that the Commission add Census Tract 11.02 to its Opportunity Zone recommendation, and that it support the program’s renewal in this community generally. The City knows where growth is actually occurring, and that knowledge is worth more here than a deadline. Respectfully submitted, THE BOARD OF DIRECTORSSouthwest Montana Building Industry Association SOUTHWEST MONTANA BUILDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION BUILDING COMMUNITIES A P P R O V E D B Y T H E B O A R D SWMBIA BOARD OF DIRECTORS The members of the Board of Directors of the Southwest Montana Building Industry Association listed below join in the letter above and in its request. Riley Rivers 2026 PRESIDENT Rivers Landscaping Bryan Morrison 2026 FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Majestic Custom Homes Charles Kesner IV 2026 SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Top Dog Landscaping & Snow Removal Tim Prelle 2026 THIRD VICE PRESIDENT Elite Glass Amber Docken 2025 PAST PRESIDENT CrossCountry Mortgage Adrian Vaughn 2026 MBIA PRESIDENT Von Construction Julie Agnew DIRECTOR Republic Services of Montana Jake Berger DIRECTOR Blanton Contracting Daniel Davis DIRECTOR Cullen Insulation Kent Duffy DIRECTOR CU Electric Nikki Evers DIRECTOR Flying S Title & Escrow Erik Garberg DIRECTOR IMEG Cassie Rosa DIRECTOR Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Montana Properties Gil Silva DIRECTOR Chicago Title Company Riley Rivers 2026 PRESIDENT · SOUTHWEST MONTANA BUILDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION Signing on behalf of the Board of Directors SOUTHWEST MONTANA BUILDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION BUILDING COMMUNITIES