GREAT FALLS — Doctor Katrina Stark has taught hundreds of students over her tenure at the University of Providence. Ten years ago, UP students helped with a downtown census. Now Stark and six students are doing that exact same thing and looking at the expansion that's going on in downtown Great Falls.
"Our students did this downtown business survey in 2013, and we got wonderful results, which of course did it as a volunteer project with one of our classes. And I'd like to think it was helpful for the Downtown Improvement District," Stark said.
Since the beginning of the year, a group of Providence students has been working for class to help with the downtown census to learn more about the economics of downtown and what is bringing more growth and business to the city.
"It's been really fun because some of our students are not from north central Montana, and so I have not even seen perhaps some of the places downtown. So it's been like, oh, I didn't know this was there," Stark added. "I think that it really will help both the city of Great Falls and our students."
A news release from the Downtown Development Partnership says that eight new businesses moved to downtown in 2022, creating almost 50 jobs. Maddy Dixon is one of the students working on the survey and says they have started their initial research and are studying things like how many businesses can occupy the same address, how many buildings are unoccupied, and more.
"We're looking at all the businesses and seeing which businesses are occupying each building. So we're looking at who owns it, if it's rented or owned, how many employees the business has, and getting to know more about the downtown and hopefully helping it keep expanding," the senior said.
There was also more than $13 million invested in rehabilitating and renovating downtown buildings according to the DDP press release.
"It looked like something I'd be interested in," freshman Asher Kempainen said. "We're split up into groups dividing all the parsecs. UP students did it ten years ago. so it's been ten years now and we just want to see what difference it is from ten years to now and how we can make it different from now and in ten years. It is a lot of information, but the more we keep attacking at it, the better, the easier it looks."
The next step for the students is to contact some of the businesses and hear from them about operating a business in downtown.
Questions or comments about this article? Contact Asher by clicking here.
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