Ticket Comment

Good afternoon, thank you for your inquiry into a potential Harbor Freight location in Great Falls. We are not at liberty to announce or discuss possible franchise activity if the corporate office has not authorized us to publicly disclose conversations related to potential development. If Harbor Freight had indeed filed any permit or land use applications with the city, that would indeed be public knowledge and available for records request. That being said, Harbor Freight has not submitted any permit applications with the city.

It's not unusual for citizens to inquire as to why there is no "brand x or y" in our community. The answer can be quite complex. Many times a community may not have the proper demographics for a particular company profile or that company may not have found the property to develop that fits their needs. Other times, a particular company may start working on a project only to find that the ultimate cost is not what they had in mind at that time. There are many factors that contribute to cost such as real-estate costs, land development costs such as utilities and other improvements. Interestingly enough, I recently learned that some of our commercial property (10th Ave S) is THE most expensive commercial real-estate in Montana. I didn't believe it until I confirmed that with a commercial real-estate professional.

Again, thank you for your inquiry into Harbor Freight. If I can answer any further questions about general development in Great Falls, I'm happy to answer.

Thanks,

Craig Raymond

Director, Planning and Community Development

City of Great Falls