IND HEMP Awarded MT State Grant to Build Demonstration Building

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Feb 15

Written By Jean Lotus

*IND HEMP’s processing facility in Fort Benton, MT. Photo courtesy of IND HEMP*

By Jean Lotus

The Montana Department of Commerce has awarded a $35,000 Agritourism Grant to IND HEMP to fund the construction of a hemp-based, climate-smart storage and demonstration facility. The structure will be located on the company's Belvedere campus, outside Bozeman, where IND HEMP serves as an anchor tenant for the local industrial park. Company spokespeople say the new building will be a new use for the concept of “agrotourism.”

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Americhanvre

South Bend Industrial Hemp

Hillside Center for Sustainable Living

Sativa Building Systems

Silacote Mineral Paints

Earthaus Plaster

HempWood

Evolve Construction

"We're really excited to showcase our products and the technologies that we want to investigate more,” Morgan Tweet, co-founder and CEO of IND told reporters at KRTV. “So what we've applied for is, the ability to put on a workshop... where we're using our hemp products and materials and different building technologies."

Homeland Hempcrete

Verdant Structural Engineers

Right Coast Hemp

Kanda Hemp Seeds

Project Specifications and Partners

The project has a total estimated budget of $74,000, which includes the state's matching grant, IND said. The building will measure approximately 12 by 16 feet (so it doesn’t require permitting). Architect Kirby Hancock of High Plains Architects, P.C. is leading the design of the facility. To demonstrate the versatility of hemp-based construction, IND HEMP is collaborating with several industry partners including, Hempitecture, Americhanvre, Homeland Hempcrete, and Renewabuild. HempWood will provide interior flooring, casework, and finishes.

Healthy Hemp Homes

Riverdale Hemp Gin

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Strategic Goals

The facility is intended to serve as a "living" demonstration of bio-based materials, featuring automation to track data points such as humidity levels and temperature differentials. This data aims to prove the efficacy of hempcrete’s thermal mass in climate-controlled environments.

Aaron Grail Construction

IND HEMP

HempBLOCK USA

Next Genesis Design

Tweet added that the facility will help bridge the gap between hemp production and the construction industry.

"[We’ll] also bring the community together for that workshop, to engage with local contractors and builders and other community members so that they can see how hemp is used in building," Tweet said. "That's really important for our business to continue to break down barriers, with the general public and with people [who] we want buying and using these products.”

Boardwurks Biocomposites

Renewabuild

East Coast Hemp Supply

Hempitecture

*Morgan Tweet, co-founder and CEO of Fort Benton, MT-based IND HEMP. Photo courtesy of IND HEMP*

IND recently rolled out an all-natural plant-fiber construction erosion mat, which the company showed off at the Greenbuild Expo in Los Angeles last year.

IND HEMP is targeting a live build and demonstration event for early October 2026, with specific dates for an invitation-only "show and tell" expo, IND spokesperson Andrew Oscar told HempBuild Mag.

“The longer term, bigger use of the space that we're trying to accommodate is if any of the participants want to bring, you know, a builder or a homeowner through and say, ‘Look what hemp can do!” Oscar said.