Bozeman Build #76

Hello and welcome to the 76th edition of the Bozeman Build Report covering business and trade events in the Northern Rockies!

Today we cover the Southgate mall ownership change, algal blooms, Flathead golf club proposal, 4% lodging taxes, McAllister Fire, mountain states employing the largest share of construction labor, rainbow trout, carbon credits, and more. Thanks for reading!

Enjoy,

Daniel

_{When and what is the Bozeman Build? The BB is a 1x/week free email newsletter delivered Monday mornings focused on Montana trade content and news. We are not a financial or building advisors.}

Montana and Bozeman Trade Pulse

Montana trade pulse

August 2025 USDA Montana Newsletter

New Stories from Montana Logging Association logging.org/news

Aug 5, 2025 MISSOULA — Southgate Mall has changed ownership again, this time as part of a $443 million financing deal that includes three other regional malls in Colorado, Florida, and Kentucky. (Western MT News)

August 11, 2025 The Montana Public Service Commission will be scheduling a meeting soon to gather information on data centers following a series of recent announcements about new operations in the Treasure State. PSC President Brad Molnar said Monday the commission will call on NorthWestern Energy to participate in the public meeting — expected to be scheduled in the coming weeks and also address AI — and outline its current and potential plans to support data centers. (Daily Montanan)

Aug 12, 2025 Montana secured the 10th place ranking nationally in a new economic freedom index, reflecting the state’s significant tax relief measures and regulatory reforms that have positioned it as a leader for business startups. (Western MT News)

August 13 2025 Governor’s Office of Community Service announced that Montana has received $2,893,856 in funding from AmeriCorps. o five organizations to support 110 AmeriCorps members serving throughout the state. (Montana Department of Ag)

Aug 13, 2025 Huckleberry hounds - Juicy information for berry pickers (FWP)

Aug 13, 2025 Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, occur when colonies of algae — simple plants that live in the water — grow out of control and produce toxic or harmful effects on people. Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, are the most common type of algae that cause harm in freshwater lakes and rivers. These are naturally occurring in Montana and are safe in low densities. However, a harmful algal bloom of cyanobacteria can be toxic to humans and animals. (FWP)

August 14, 2025 For Aqua Creek Products, building pool lifts and aquatic access equipment isn’t just about manufacturing—it’s about opening the water to everyone. From their shop in Missoula, Montana, this family-owned company has spent more than two decades creating ways for people of all abilities to enjoy the freedom and health benefits of swimming and recreation. (Montana Manufacturing Extension)

August 14, 2025 Gov. Greg Gianforte continued his 56 County Tour in Yellowstone County on Thursday, celebrating the opening of Rodeo Billings at MetraPark, his office said in a news release. (Daily Montanan)

August 14, 2025 A proposal for a luxury private golf club that will include a 359 single-family home subdivision was proposed by “Flathead Friends, LLC,” or Discovery Land Company. A private marina is also included for Flathead Lake Club members, includes 36 boat slips. While the marina is included in the project, it is not part of the preliminary plat application. (Flathead Beacon)

August 15 2025 Montana DLI and Northern Cheyenne Tribe Celebrate Grand Opening of New Job Service Office in Lame Deer (DLI)

Montana 4% lodging Facility Use Tax Collections

Tourism and film promotion are funded through the 4% lodging facility use tax, commonly known as the bed tax. Enacted by the 1987 legislature, the bed tax is collected from guests of hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, guest ranches, resorts and campgrounds. The leap between 2021 and 2022 is wild which likely prompted many hotel developers to build many of these projects being completed in 2024 and 2025 similar riding the same wave as the apartment developers.

Bozeman trade pulse

Aug 12, 2025 What started as a small gardening experiment for Gae Bjorklund has grown into a thriving business supplying garlic to customers across the country. (KTVQ)

August 14, 2025 Quantum computing research facility launching at Montana State on Aug. 20 (MSU News)

Mass Timber

Similar to the Gianforte School of Computing at MSU, META (Facebook) is constructing an administrative building using mass timber at its Aiken, South Carolina data center campus and last year, Microsoft announced it would use CLT in a hybrid construction strategy to build a pair of lower emissions data centers, combining the durable wood with steel and concrete. (Construction Dive)

Pipe Rehabilitation

South Bozeman I noticed a plumbing contractor relining a few residents pipes that lead to the main. Many residents of East Bozeman will inevitably have main water, sewer, drain issues. Montana Plumbing Co was the contractor here.

McAllister Fire

Made a visit to the Ennis area this weekend and captured a few photos of some ranchers moving cattle off a plot effected and a photo of some equipment used to make fuel breaks.

Bobcat Athletics

MSU has completed a plethora of campus improvements over recent years and I didn’t even realize that MSU athletics has a master plan they developed back in 2017 that covers projects that haven’t broken ground yet including tennis/golf facility additions, Bobcat stadium seating and box expansions, along with some improvements to the Brick Breeden Field House which by the way is one of the largest clear span wooden domes in the world. Check out MSUs Athletic Master Plan if included!

Northern Rockies/ Misc

August 12, 2025 Retirees from Utah are moving to Evanston, Wyoming, because of low home prices, tax advantages, and plenty of recreation. One broker said home prices in Salt Lake City are nearly double that of Evanston. (Cowboy State Daily)

August 13, 2025 Wyoming water developers appear to be closing in on a land exchange between the state and the Medicine Bow National Forest to enable construction of a dam and reservoir above the Little Snake River Valley in Carbon County. (WyoFile)

Aug 13, 2025 All eight Mountain West states rank among the top 10 nationally for construction employment as a share of total jobs. Wyoming leads the nation at 11.0%, followed closely by Utah (9.5%), Idaho (9.3%), Montana (8.7%), Arizona (8.0%), Nevada (7.9%), New Mexico (7.9%), and Colorado (7.7%). This regional concentration reflects both strong construction demand and a significant dependence on the sector for employment.(The Observer)

August 14, 2025 Taco John’s was born in Cheyenne and, for 56 years, was Wyoming-based with its headquarters here. Now the chain has said adios to Cheyenne, completing a move of its home base to Minnesota. (Cowboy State Daily)

August 15, 2025 Cheyenne’s Dyno Nobel Wants To Turn Explosives Waste Into Food Cooling Packs (Cowboy State Daily)

No more rainbows

Was chatting with someone who fished the south fork of the snake river below the Palisade Dam, to my surprise he mentioned that Idaho Fish and Game encourages anglers to cull any caught rainbow trout. “The South Fork Snake River supports one of the most important river populations of native Yellowstone cutthroat trout in Idaho, as well as other popular non-native trout including rainbow trout and brown trout. However, the future of Idaho’s state fish – the cutthroat trout – is uncertain. The South Fork’s famous cutthroat trout are declining from both hybridizing and competing with non-native rainbow trout. Anglers can help boost cutthroat trout numbers by harvesting rainbow trout they catch here.“ (Idaho Fish and Game)

Carbon Credits

Carbon credits has always seemed to be a crazy and hoaxish concept to me however this article was interesting because this new carbon capture technology might hold some merit and is projected to decrease costs significantly. According to the Nature Conservancy The average carbon footprint for a person in the United States is 16 tons per year.

At present, carbon-related ERW credits remain quite pricey, ranging from $300 to $400 a ton, according to carbon credit marketplace SuperCritical. Despite this, ERW firms remain bullish that if scaled, the price per credit has the potential to drop significantly, with some projections as low as $25 per ton.

ERW firms like Terradot mine silicate rock from quarries, which are then crushed to a powdery consistency (Kanoff likens it to “baby powder”) and spread over wide-ranging cropland. It removes CO2 through a chemical reaction, called carbonation, where CO2 trapped in rainwater reacts with carbonic acid in rocks containing silicate minerals, such as Basalt. When rainwater interacts with the rocks, the CO2 it carries mineralizes and is stored in a solid carbonate form. (Data Center Dynamics)

Thanks for reading,

Daniel Zavadil

bozemanbuild.com & blockbiome.com