Making Great Spaces for Commercial Expansion
WGM Group has been preserving sense of place and providing prime commercial real estate opportunities in the west’s fastest growing cities for over 50 years.
Community planning and multi-phase construction infrastructure projects ensure global companies have room to grow when relocating to cities like Missoula and Bozeman - while protecting the quality of life that attracted them to Montana in the first place.
Fortune 500 tech company Cognizant has been expanding in the Old Sawmill District Tech Campus that WGM Group helped plan, design and engineer since 2019. That’s a trend that will continue as tech companies across the nation recognize the value of living and working in places that value community planning and thoughtful design.
Missoula, Bozeman, and Kalispell, Montana have hit the national radar, earning a series of rankings for quality of life and business climate.
Missoula has more than doubled in population since 1980 and continues to attract new residents at the annual growth rate of ~2%. Bozeman has earned the ranking of “the fastest growing micropolitan area” in the nation, and “strongest small economy” multiple years in a row.
Will Price, founder and GP at Next Frontier Capital is clear moving to Bozeman from the Bay Area has brought both personal fulfillment and professional opportunity, writing “the choice we made to uproot our family of four from the knowns of the Bay Area for the promise of Montana is one of our best ever decisions.”
In order to protect the unique qualities of these cities, growth and development needs to be balanced with a careful approach to preserving wildlife habitat and the natural surroundings that have defined Montana living for generations.
For over 50 years, we’ve been planning and engineering connected communities with the foundational elements of good design and a personal commitment to preserving sense of place and affordable housing options for community members.
The Old Sawmill District in downtown Missoula is an example of the multi-use projects we’ve helped create that are attracting companies from across the country and around the world.
The Old Sawmill redevelopment highlights a recent WGM Group project that transformed an old sawmill and neighborhood blight into an in-demand residential, commercial, and recreation space. The culmination of decades of experience and careful thought about how the elements of great design can come together to preserve and enhance communities.
Project developer Ed Wetherbee and his team “envision a campus that supports over 1,000 employees..in the spirit of campus environments like you would find in Silicon Valley or other tech-heavy areas…enabling startups, entrepreneurs and businesses to collaborate, share experiences and get inspiration from other members in the community”
Transforming a former lumber mill to a high-density housing and commercial property started with a thorough environmental cleanup - it was actually the first brown fields mitigation project in the state of Montana. In order to attract individuals and businesses who value Montana’s access to outdoor activity we planned a new community recreation site along the Clark Fork River with a riverfront park, and and a bike/pedestrian path intersecting the established riverfront trail system. Landscape architecture seamlessly connects the project site with its surroundings.
A successful commercial development project requires a thoughtful relationship with community residents and decision-makers.
The Old Sawmill district is right in the center of the urban core, close to downtown Missoula. Consequently, WGM Group helped forge a complicated public-private partnership with the State of Montana, the City of Missoula, the Missoula Redevelopment Authority, the previous land owners, as well as a team of attorneys, planners, and architects.
WGM Group will always keep community at the heart of our brand and company decisions. Careful planning allows for corporate expansion and relocation that fuels our economy - while protecting the places we love.