A for-profit osteopathic school has selected Billings as the site for a new four-year undergraduate medical school.
Officials at Rocky Vista University announced Tuesday that they will build a 135,000-square-foot, technologically-advanced facility on a 12-acre campus off the intersection of Shiloh and Monad roads, which will be known as the Montana College of Osteopathic Medicine.
The college's start-up period will run from this year through 2023 and cost $78.6 million, provide 350 jobs to the area and generate $1.2 million in tax revenue to communities in the area, according to a news release from Big Sky Economic Development.
The college will hit full operation in 2026 and will support 304 direct and indirect $67 million in total economic impact and add $3.3 million in revenue to state and local governments.
The college would be Montana's only four-year undergraduate medical school. Rocky Vista operates two other schools in Colorado and Southern Utah.
Billings was selected after an extensive location search by RVU to continue its mission-led focus of providing quality healthcare education while inspiring students to serve with compassion, integrity, and excellence, according to Big Sky Economic Development.
Rocky Vista University was established in 2006 as the nation’s first private, for-profit health sciences university to offer a professional medical degree since 1910, according to the school's website.
