Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutOpen to Business - Local governments reevaluating how they work with developers, companies looking to move to Gallatin Valley OPEN TO BUSINESS Local governments reevaluating how they work with developers, companies looking to move to Gallatin Valley By JASON BACAJ Chronicle Staff Writer Sitka Gear's search for a new headquarters began shortly after the outdoor apparel company's leaders realized their San Francisco Bay area base clashed with the business' burgeoning image. Last August, Sitka began looking around the mountain West for a .. ti town more in tune with its roughly 10-employee operation. It had been in touch with Prospera Business Network since April, when the two organizations crossed paths at a Bay area event hosted by Montana Ambassadors, a state-run nonprofit economic development organization. The connection planted Bozeman in the minds of the company's leadership as they came closer to making a decision on relocating. It also helped that some Sitka workers, such as designers and sourcing team members, were already living in Bozeman, said Kevin Sloan, CEO of Iwo Sitka whose wife grew up in Bozeman. Soon, the company settled on Bozeman. It reached that decision in part because the valley is a great testing ground for its products and already has some folks here but also because of the city's technology infrastructure and the local airport, Sloan said. Once the decision was made, Sloan got in touch with Montana Avenue Partners, the developers of the building complex on the corner of North Rouse Avenue and Oak Street. Sitka needed to move its operations quickly, wanted to be in a new building by April and needed to know if that was possible. The developer contacted city economic development director Brit Fontenot. Within days, a group of representatives from the planning, building, engineering and fire departments, as well as Fontenot, met with the developer and Sloan to figure out what each person and department needed to get the project done on time. Everyone at the meeting gained a concept of the big picture Sitka was trying to achieve, Fontenot said. "We had a timeline to try to pull this off and it was fairly short," Sloan said. "And it looks like we're going to do it." PUTTING THE PAST BEHIND THEM Doing business with local government wasn't always this way. "Smooth" and "painless" were often the opposites of words chosen by business people to describe the process of approaching Bozeman officials to build or move into town. The city set strict mandates on landscaping and building design, among other things. It basically said that if you want to do business in Bozeman, you have to do it the way Bozeman's government wants, said Jeff Krauss, deputy mayor. Mystery Ranch, a local backpack manufacturer, moved out of the city several years ago because of what the company viewed as irrational city regulations and arrogant planning department employees. "We still have a few nicks and dents," said Gary Gullickson, Mystery Ranch's government relations official. But the company decided to move back into town recently after city officials approached the company founder. It's currently operating out of a building on Evergreen Drive. It wasn't only the city that was difficult to work with. It's "no secret" the city and county have had differences, County Administrator Earl Mathers said at a local chamber of commerce breakfast. But the recession has brought the two governments together and let them put differences in the past to focus on the future. "If we would've talked about needing an economic development office in 2005, the response... would've been just get the hell out of the way," Sean Becker, Bozeman mayor, said at a local chamber of commerce breakfast. The economic development team that met with Sitka and the property developer is one of several new practices instituted by the city of Bozeman, Gallatin County and other local governments in the area to promote economic development. "Just getting out of the way is not enough today," Becker said. "We want folks to be able to invest in our community in creative ways that we can't see right now." REINVENTING GOVERNMENT AT EVERY STEP In the last year or so, Bozeman named Fontenot its economic development director, a position that facilitates conversation between business and areas of city government. The city also created the Economic Development Council and worked with several local organizations to create the Gallatin Business Resource Network, a website for businesses interested in the area. And the city helped develop the site selector, a state website that enables localities to make data — such as vacant properties and the Realtors marketing them — available in real-time, Fontenot said. The planning department made changes around the same time, said Chris Saunders, assistant planning director. The planning department's changes came in three main parts, the first of which concerned annexation. The city worked with the Legislature to remove state-level procedural steps from the annexation process, provided the landowner and the city are in favor of an annexation, Saunders said. It also simplified subdivision regulation by removing a public hearing step from subdivision development. The planning department also changed local ordinances to allow developers to modify or reconfigure up to a block's worth of houses without having to go through the entire subdivision approval process, Saunders said. Saunders said the city changed what type of projects can be reviewed administratively. The city also changed requirement for multi-phase projects so that developers only have to submit a specific plan for the first phase of the project. A generalized plan is all that's needed at first for future phases. "We don't simply just want to have a book of rules and we look at the book of rules and we tell you what the book of rules are," said Tim McHarg, city planner. "We want to understand what your goals are." Gallatin County administrators have gotten into the economic development game as well. The county played a pivotal role in reestablishing the Northern Rocky Mountain Economic Development District last fall. The district is funded in part by the federal Economic Development Administration and local governments. The county planning department has focused on community building in areas like Churchill and Gallatin Gateway. About $15,000 was raised for a silo in Churchill, and grants were secured to build a sewer system in Gallatin Gateway with help from the planning department, said Warren Vaughn, county planner. It all sounds top-heavy and cumbersome, Becker said. But that's because local government had to be reinvented at "every step along the way," he said. IMPOSSIBLE TO POSSIBLE The changes appear to be working. Barry Brown, co-manager of Montana Avenue Partners, said the city's approach to business has improved significantly. "Our previous experiences were at a time of extremely high growth, and the city was in a position to be a little bit more, more demanding," said Brown, who's dabbled in development for about six years. "The perception was they were out to slow things down. "There were a lot more projects in place. To do what we did this last time would've been virtually impossible." Brown said the meeting that took place a few days after Montana Avenue Partners first approached the city about the Sitka project was crucial to helping Bozeman realize the Sitka timeline and respond accordingly. There's no way the city could have worked with those time requirements in the past, Brown said. It also helped that the developers had previously worked with Brian Krueger, associate planner. Brown and his partner had a building designed already; the plans only needed updating to match the Sitka's needs, Krueger said. Sloan expects his company to move into its new building off North Rouse Avenue in the first week in May. He's hired three local people already, is actively searching for another and expects to hire several more by summer. All the company's employees have made the move from the San Francisco area to Bozeman, he said. They're currently working in an office west of Bobcat Stadium. Shortly after Sitka moves in, Brown expects a restaurant, a wellness business and an office user to open business on the first floor of the building built for Sitka. The experience of Sitka and Brown underscores the goal of economic development efforts by the local governments. It's intended to create an environment in which businesses can succeed and a strong base for the local economy, said Chris Kukulski, city manager. "It's showing Oracle how it is that (RightNow Technologies) created a $1.5 billion company out of nothing in Gallatin County and why this is a smart place to invest in," Kukulski said. Jason Bacaj may be reached at jasonb @dailychronicle.com or 582-2635. Photo by Nick Wolcott/Chronicle - The Northside Granary off of North Rouse Avenue will be the home to Sitka Gear in April.