Janicki Industries, one of the largest privately owned Tier 1 aerospace suppliers in the United States, has selected Great Falls, Montana, as the site of its next major manufacturing campus in a US$800 million investment that will add two million square feet of production space over the next decade. Announced on June 2, 2026, at the annual meeting of the Great Falls Development Authority, the project centres on 180 acres of shovel-ready land within AgriTech Park, a rail-served industrial development on the northeast side of Great Falls near the intersection of River Drive North and 57th Street North. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Sedro-Woolley, Washington, Janicki designs and builds composite and metallic tooling, parts, prototypes, fly-away components, and large-scale high-precision assemblies for the aerospace, defense, space, and marine industries, serving customers from facilities currently spanning over one million square feet across Washington and Utah. Construction is scheduled to begin in July 2026, with the first phase of the campus targeted to open by the end of 2027. The project will be delivered across four construction phases, with local tax incentives applied separately to each phase on a diminishing schedule over the first ten years. Within five years, Janicki expects to have created at least 1,000 jobs; total employment will exceed 2,000 once the full campus is built out. Great Falls Mayor Cory Reeves described the investment as one of the largest economic development wins the community has seen in decades.

Montana Writes Itself Into the Industrial Map One Announcement at a Time

The Janicki decision did not come easily: Great Falls competed directly against Twin Falls and Jerome in Idaho, with John Janicki and COO Michael Janicki personally visiting each candidate community before making their selection. The deciding factors were Montana’s simplified two-bracket income tax structure, the shovel-ready status of the AgriTech Park site, a city bond approved by the Great Falls City Commission for infrastructure improvements at AgriTech, and a business climate Janicki’s president described frankly as more supportive than what the company experiences in Washington state. The investment follows a period of aggressive industrial momentum in Montana: U.S. Energy Corp. reached a Final Investment Decision in March 2026 to construct the Big Sky Carbon Hub processing facility in Toole County, an integrated helium and carbon management plant that marks a parallel diversification of the state’s industrial base. Taken together, these announcements signal something genuinely new for Montana: a state historically defined by agriculture, energy, and timber is beginning to attract capital-intensive advanced manufacturing on a scale more typically associated with the Sun Belt. For the broader aerospace supply chain, Janicki’s campus also matters strategically. The company scaled from just over 900 employees in 2022 to nearly 1,900 by end of 2025 entirely on the back of existing customer demand, and the Great Falls campus is not a speculative build. It is capacity-driven, which makes it one of the more durable industrial commitments Montana has received in a generation.

Project Fact Sheet

• Project Name: Janicki Industries Great Falls Manufacturing Campus
• Location: AgriTech Park, Great Falls, Cascade County, Montana, USA (180 acres; northeast Great Falls near River Drive North and 57th Street North)
• Project Value: US$800 million
• Client/Owner: Janicki Industries (privately owned; headquartered in Sedro-Woolley, Washington)
• Key Products: Advanced composite tooling and parts, precision metallic tooling, prototypes, fly-away aerospace components, large-scale high-precision assemblies; serving aerospace, defense, space, and marine sectors
• Campus Scale: 2 million square feet of production space across four construction phases over approximately ten years
• Construction Start: July 2026
• Expected Phase 1 Completion: End of 2027
• Jobs Created: 1,000 new jobs within first five years; total employment exceeding 2,000 at full campus buildout
• Incentives: Local tax incentives applied per construction phase on a ten-year diminishing schedule; City of Great Falls bond approved for AgriTech Park infrastructure improvements
• Site Features: Rail-served, shovel-ready AgriTech Park industrial land; four-phase phased construction programme
• Strategic Impact: Establishes Great Falls as a Tier 1 aerospace and defense manufacturing hub; among the largest single private-sector economic development investments in Montana history

Project Team

• Client/Owner: Janicki Industries
• President: John Janicki, Janicki Industries
• Chief Operating Officer: Michael Janicki, Janicki Industries
• Marketing Manager: Erin Hurley, Janicki Industries
• Community Relations: Nick Lavacca, Janicki Industries
• State Government Partner: State of Montana (Governor Greg Gianforte)
• Local Development Authority: Great Falls Development Authority (Jolene Schalper, Executive Vice President, Great Falls Development Alliance)
• Municipal Authority: City of Great Falls (Mayor Cory Reeves)
• Infrastructure Finance: City of Great Falls TIF (Tax Increment Finance) Board; Great Falls City Commission bond for AgriTech Park infrastructure
• Site Host: AgriTech Park, Great Falls (rail-served industrial development)
• State Business Development Partner: Montana Department of Commerce
• Main Contractor: Not yet confirmed; expected to be drawn from firms experienced in large-scale advanced manufacturing campus construction such as Mortenson Construction, Hensel Phelps, or Turner Construction, all of which have significant aerospace and defense facility experience in the Mountain West