Missoula Economic Partnership is among three Montana organizations that have expressed interest in housing the relocated facilities for two United States Department of Agriculture research centers.
Nicole Rush, grants manager at Missoula Economic Partnership, says she thinks Missoula has a good shot at landing the offices.
"I think that we have a great, well-educated workforce and location factors that may be of interest to the USDA," Rush says. "And we’d certainly appreciate adding 600 high-paying federal jobs to our community, so of course we were going to apply."
The USDA announced in August that it is relocating the offices of its Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to be closer to stakeholders, many of whom live and work far from Washington, D.C. and closer to agricultural areas.
Montana State University’s Innovation Campus in Bozeman and Big Sky Economic Development in Billings were also among 136 total parties in 36 states that expressed interest in housing the USDA offices.
The new location or locations will be announced by January 2019.