Janicki keeps Great Falls in running for $200 million factory site

Janicki Industries has dropped East Helena and Butte from consideration for a potential $200 million manufacturing facility, a sharp setback for Lewis and Clark County after months of local courting and site visits. The company said Great Falls, along with Twin Falls and Jerome in south-central Idaho, remained under review as it works toward a final site decision by the end of May and, if everything goes well, a June groundbreaking.

The decision matters because Janicki is not shopping for a small satellite shop. The company said it is pursuing a long-term expansion plan worth more than $800 million that could eventually add as much as 2 million square feet of production space over the next decade. Janicki said demand for its work has outpaced capacity, and the company has already grown from just over 900 employees in 2022 to nearly 1,900 by the end of 2025, with more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing space.

East Helena had worked hard to get in the mix. In mid-January, Janicki representatives toured sites there, including the Town Pump-owned Lamping Field parcel along Highway 12, and met with East Helena Mayor Kelly Harris, Helena Mayor Emily Dean and East Helena Schools Superintendent Dan Rispens. Local leaders pitched the I-15 corridor, workforce access, career and technical education, STEM programs and long-range housing plans that could eventually add about 6,000 homes on former smelter lands by 2045.

That pitch, however, was not enough to keep the county in the running. Janicki spokesman Nick Lavacca said the company was impressed by the schools, businesses, landowners and city officials it met in Great Falls, describing the community as welcoming and cooperative. Great Falls Development Agency has framed the project as a source of high-wage advanced manufacturing jobs in a city that does not currently have an aerospace industry, a reminder of how rare a win like this could be for the region.

The stakes for Lewis and Clark County are substantial. Earlier discussions suggested the plant could bring hundreds of jobs, and other coverage has put the number of manufacturing and engineering jobs at more than 1,000 within five years, depending on the final scope. Losing the project means East Helena, and the county’s industrial corridor, misses a rare chance to add a major private employer, broaden the tax base and build out a stronger manufacturing identity.

Janicki’s Montana push comes as it expands elsewhere too. On April 16, the company announced new and expanded facilities in Washington and Utah, including a 40,000-square-foot purchase in Mount Vernon, a Bellingham expansion expected to add about 125 jobs, a completed 162,000-square-foot building at its Hamilton campus and an expansion in Layton, Utah. Janicki said Washington remains its home base, even as it weighs larger growth opportunities in other states.