Janicki Industries drops East Helena from manufacturing campus search

East Helena is out of the running for Janicki Industries’ next manufacturing campus, ending a high-stakes recruitment effort that had raised hopes for more than 1,000 industrial and engineering jobs in the Helena Valley.

Mayor Kelly Harris said the Washington-based company notified East Helena officials by email in early April that it was moving in a different direction. Janicki had previously included East Helena among the Montana communities selected for site tours after asking cities for information about possible locations. The city never got the final call it wanted, and by the time Janicki began narrowing its shortlist, East Helena was no longer on it.

The company’s January visit showed how seriously it had been considering the area. Representatives toured the Town Pump-owned Lamping Field parcel along Highway 12, met with Harris, Helena Mayor Emily Dean and East Helena Schools Superintendent Dan Rispens, and looked over East Helena High School career and technical education programs, including welding and construction. That combination of land, transportation access and workforce training points to what city leaders were trying to sell: a site that could support heavy manufacturing and a labor pipeline ready to feed it.

The scale of the proposed campus explains why the loss matters. Janicki’s project was described as more than $800 million in investment, up to 2 million square feet of production space over a decade and more than 1,000 manufacturing and engineering jobs within five years. For East Helena, that would have meant a major jump in payroll, a larger local tax base and a long-term anchor employer near the I-15 corridor. Instead, the city will keep competing for a project of that size without the immediate economic lift.

Janicki’s Montana search had already shifted toward Great Falls by mid-May. Great Falls officials approved tax abatements for the company on May 12, after pursuing incentives similar to those used for the Montana Renewables and Calumet biofuel expansion. On May 22, Janicki said it was evaluating a 2-million-square-foot expansion to Great Falls, Montana, or to Twin Falls and Jerome in south-central Idaho. That left East Helena behind as the company moved toward a final choice expected by the end of May.

The setback lands in a city still trying to turn its former smelter landscape into new economic ground. East Helena received $50 million in federal cleanup money in March 2024 to keep remediating land contaminated by the old ASARCO smelter, including property near homes, schools, daycares, parks and churches. Prickly Pear Park opened in 2025 on land that was once part of the industrial footprint. That redevelopment shows East Helena can reclaim contaminated ground, but Janicki’s decision also makes clear that landing a project of this size still depends on infrastructure, workforce readiness and transportation assets that can close a competitive deal.