Opening doors for business
Mountain West works to move valley 'from survival to success'
If someone were to hold an election today for chief morale officer of Flathead County, Liz Marchi of Montana West Economic Development would definitely be a front-runner.
Celebrating her fifth anniversary with the group, Marchi, 51, points to two elements of her tenure at the organization - until recently known as Jobs Now Inc. - that have made her especially proud.
"The first one was getting Resource Label [Group] to expand here out of their Memphis facility," Marchi said. "They're a high-value manufacturing company with high-wage jobs. They also have a beautiful facility in Whitefish."
The second accomplishment about which Marchi is enthusiastic is the fact that the group itself has worked, over time, toward obtaining a true community perspective.
"We're much more sophisticated now," she said. "We have a forward-looking sense of the economy as well as of the educational and developmental partnerships that will move the Flathead from survival to success. We also have a board that's looking for an expanded agenda of economic development."
Initially, Marchi said, Jobs Now Inc. - a 1997 start-up - focused exclusively on recruiting businesses to Northwest Montana.
It is now, and always has been, a privately driven economic development organization directed toward "fostering high-value job opportunity." The original board of directors had 15 members. Today that number has doubled.
"It was a very small founding group, who understood that their own business futures depended on a healthier local economy - a systemic change in that economy," Marchi said.
The original goal was to relocate different types of businesses - more prosperous businesses - to the Flathead.
In 1997, $600,000 was raised from 25 businesses and individuals in support of this quest. In 2005 $1.5 million was raised from 83 businesses and individuals.
When Marchi arrived in summer 2000 - recruited from her position as executive director of community policy for the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina - she described her first impression of the area as "going back in time."
"There were no chain stores, lots of gravel pits and on the whole it was tired-looking," she said. "But there was something underneath it all that was very real - the people were genuine."
Marchi said that at that time she had seen nothing that would limit the area's positive growth over the next five to 10 years.
Marchi said that in her first five years in the Flathead, Montana West Economic Development did intense business recruitment, cultivated private investors and start-up companies and worked to leverage the skills, resources and expertise already existing in the valley.
"In all of this, you have to be able to innovate," she said. "We modeled our plan on investing in a healthier economy.
"Our next five years will be about being self-sustaining. It is critical to have private investors. We want to grow and support entrepreneurial economy for scalable businesses which can reach national and global markets."
What started as a 1 1/2-person office has today grown to four employees. There is a new Web site, dobusinessinmontana.com, and Marchi said Mountain West is getting ready to do a blog.
Other ongoing projects are the continual gathering and generating of demographic data and a close look at the employment opportunities, average incomes and private investments in comparable cities such as Ashville, N.C.; Bend, Ore.; and Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Also, a merger between Montana West and the Northwest Business Center Loan Program will let Montana West access a $3 million loan fund to further assist local businesses
Montana West's achievements to date include bringing Teletech, Resource Label, Artisans Doors of Montana and Sage Spa to the valley. It also has helped an additional 30 companies find space and employees.
Reporter George Kingson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at gkingson@dailyinterlake.com