Senator Daines Can Help Keep Butte Moving Forward

OP ED Originally Published in the Montana Standard on June 3, 2025

https://mtstandard.com/opinion/column/article_1946b2b0-3de5-47a4-9cce-d493edb30bc1.html

Uptown Butte could have easily gone a different direction. The old Sears Building might still be sitting empty. NorthWestern Energy’s headquarters could have ended up in another town. There could be fewer jobs. More vacant buildings. Fewer reasons to live here.

But that’s not what happened.

Over the past decade, a targeted program called the New Markets Tax Credit has leveraged private investment dollars to bring back core properties, attract employers, and anchor Butte’s Uptown. It has played a key role in some of our most visible and successful redevelopment projects. But the program is set to expire unless Congress steps in to save it.

This isn’t just another federal program. The New Markets Tax Credit has brought more than $30 million in private investment directly into Uptown Butte. It helped close financing gaps for two cornerstone projects that faced costs local stakeholders couldn’t cover on their own.

One of them is at the corner of Park Street and Main, where NorthWestern Energy built its 100,000- square-foot operational headquarters. The company needed a new headquarters, but construction in Uptown was more expensive than other options. Without the NMTC program, they likely would have moved the project elsewhere. Instead, they stayed. That decision kept more than 200 employees working in the heart of the city. These are community members who live here, raise families here, and contribute to Butte every day. The project also supported the viability of a new uptown parking garage, by adding

local tax dollars to the uptown district. In this case, the NMTC program did exactly what it was intended to do which is revitalize an economically distressed urban area.

A few blocks away, the former Sears Building was brought back into use with the same kind of support. It had been sitting mostly vacant, and while its bones were strong, the cost of bringing it back up to code was too high. NMTC financing made the numbers work. Today, the building is home to the Science Mine, where kids from all over come to explore and learn and the Sears Building Lofts, which have added much-needed housing in Uptown.

But the impact of the program hasn’t stopped there. On the south end of town, the Copper King Hotel and Convention Center was brought back into full operation after years of sitting empty. With NMTC financing, it was reopened as a modern hotel, restaurant, and event space. The project created nearly 100 permanent jobs and over 160 construction jobs, restoring a key property near the airport that now serves business travelers, conferences, and sports teams coming through Butte.

Butte Ace Hardware is another example. With support from NMTC, the owners expanded their existing store and doubled its size. The project added new jobs and allowed the business to stay in its original location. This was a strong investment in a local business that has been part of the Butte community since 2006.

Butte’s not finished building. We’re not done revitalizing ourselves. We’re looking ahead to more projects that can improve the quality of life, support local businesses, and help people put down roots. Programs like the New Markets Tax Credit help make that possible, and we are going to need it to keep up the momentum.

Montana’s Senator Daines is in a strong position to help reauthorize this program before it sunsets this year. We are confident he understands what is at stake and will help keep this tool available for communities like ours. That is how we keep Butte moving forward.

Kelly Sullivan is the Executive Director of the Butte Local Development Corporation.