Final push under way in cleanup of Missoula’s Old Sawmill District

In exchange, the Chinese investors have the opportunity for a substantial return and a fast track to U.S. citizenship.

“Starting three years ago, we recognized with the way the economy was, we were going to have to look for creative and alternative ways to finance building development in the Old Sawmill District. The opportunity came up with Arnie (Sherman) and it just seemed to make a lot of sense,” Ed Wetherbee said.

Wetherbee and partner Kevin Mytty founded Millsite Revitalization Project LLC more than eight years ago to begin cleaning up the 45 acres that were once home to the Champion mill west of the Orange Street Bridge.

Wetherbee is also the co-founder, along with Sherman, of the Northern Rockies Regional Center. The center was launched and approved last April to offer so-called EB-5 Immigrant Investor visas, which allow high-net individuals to obtain visas to live in the U.S. in return for investment in American projects. Each investor must pledge at least $500,000 to a qualifying project that will produce jobs in the area.

The Northern Rockies Regional Center has found a handful of Chinese investors who are interested in putting money into the Old Sawmill District. At least four potential investors from China are planning a trip to Missoula this spring.

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The Northern Rockies Regional Center works to find investors around the world for Montana projects, and opened an office in the coastal city of Zhu Hai, China, to take advantage of wealthy people in that growing country who have shown an interest in American projects.

“China is very well organized; there are almost 600 agencies in China that do EB-5 work,” Sherman said.

The Old Sawmill District project would be one of the first in the state financed by EB-5 investments.

Wetherbee and Mytty have spent years working to secure investments and government grants to clean up the site. Soil cleanup was completed in 2009. Work to remove wood waste, which was producing unhealthy amounts of methane, and prepare the site for building is now wrapping up.

The first development project calls for a 120,000-square-foot building with commercial and retail space on the first floor. Three floors above will include multifamily living space, where a mix of tenants looking for a premiere space to rent can move in.

“We’re looking at what might otherwise be first-time homebuyers. I think there’s a real market for that,” Wetherbee said.

Two buildings are planned for the first phase of development. One or both could begin once investors are secured, Wetherbee said. Each will cost between $15 million and $20 million.

Chinese investors like Missoula because it’s a university town in a state with a budget surplus.

In general, many want to take advantage of the school system here, Wetherbee said.

“Their holy grail is to have their kids go to school in the United States,” he said.

Earning citizenship is contingent on the project’s success in creating jobs.