The Montana Economic Revitalization and Development Institute (MERDI) was created in 1974 to pursue economic development and technology transfer in Montana. MERDI's suite of services and expertise includes environmental operations, information technology and a broad range of economic development consulting services.
MERDI owns and manages the Thornton Technology and Enterprise Center which is a renovated historic building located in uptown Butte, Montana that is listed on the National Register. Through a unique adaptive reuse, the former hotel structure has been repurposed into a commercial and technology transfer office facility featuring cutting edge information technology infrastructure, a data center offering a full suite of services including access to high speed and high capacity broadband.