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Peak Health Project to Revitalize Helena Neighborhood

A joint development project between St. Peter’s Hospital and Dick Anderson Construction will bring a new health and fitness building to Helena’s central area with the help of Valley Bank of Helena and the Montana Community Development Corporation http://www.mtcdc.org: .

The Peak Health project is turning a vacant building in Helena, Montana into a local fitness and rehabilitation facility. The project, whose funding came from Valley Bank of Helena and federal tax credit financing through the Montana Community Development Corporation (MCDC), is the first step in turning the empty structure into a thriving commercial center.

The project brings 45 new construction jobs and 50 permanent jobs upon completion in 2011. Most of the demolition has occurred and the foundation for the new gymnasium poured. The remaining construction work will go out for bid to sub-contractors soon. The construction incorporates many LEED building practices and energy efficient components such as extra insulation and recycling of demolition and construction materials. The permanent jobs will include benefits such as health insurance, training opportunities and on-site daycare.

The $9.4 million project is a collaboration between St. Peter’s Hospital and Dick Anderson Construction. It will give the neighborhood a first-rate health and wellness center, which will offer memberships on a sliding scale fee basis, and a state-of-the-art rehabilitation center that’s an extension of St. Peter’s Hospital. “Wellness is a large part of St. Peter’s mission and the hospital is committed to making a positive impact on the health of the community it serves,” said Peggy Stebbins, Director of Public Relations and Marketing for St. Peter’s Hospital. “This new facility will offer convenient rehabilitation services for our patients and also assist in improving the community residents’ overall health and wellness.”

Construction is going smoothly but it took some doing to get the project off the ground.

“The federal tax credit program was the perfect financing tool for this project and was crucial to getting the partnership up and running,” said Stebbins.

Heidi DeArment, Executive Vice President at the Montana Community Development Corporation, knows how difficult it can be to get these projects going. “Financing for redevelopment of older, distressed neighborhoods can be challenging. The first project is often the most difficult but is the most important in terms of reversing a cycle of economic downturn. Luckily, for Helena and other Montana cities, there are financial tools in place to get neighborhoods over that first hurdle. The Peak Health project turns a large vacant building into a catalyst for economic growth in the area. The New Markets Tax Credit Program was made for projects like this.”

The New Markets Tax Credit program is a federal tax credit tool that was used primarily in urban areas until U.S. Senator Max Baucus spearheaded changes to require credits to be invested in rural states. “As Montana continues on a path of economic recovery, we must come together and work on common sense solutions to create more good-paying jobs here at home. I worked hard to make sure the New Markets Tax Credit Program would do just that and I’m very proud to see this new health and wellness project open and bring 50 new jobs to the Helena community.”

The program allows MCDC to sell federal tax credits to private investors in order to generate very low-cost financing for eligible building projects with high community impacts. In this case, Valley Bank of Helena, together with its sister banks, 1st Bank of Evanston, Wyoming, and Western Security Bank of Billings, provided the debt financing and tax credit investments. “We could not be putting this financial tool to work without community partners like Valley Bank of Helena and St. Peter’s Hospital,” said MCDC’s DeArment.

"We are pleased to be working with Helena’s biggest health care provider to bring additional health and fitness services to the people of Helena, while helping to revitalize a highly visible neighborhood,” says Valley Bank of Helena’s Senior Vice President, Gary Bye. “MCDC and the federal tax credit program made that possible.”

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