SmartLam Technologies Group, a rapidly growing wood products manufacturer, is expanding its operations and headquarters to the former Weyerhaeuser lumber mill property in Columbia Falls, according to company officials. The company plans to move into the shuttered site by Jan. 1, 2018, and significantly expand its manufacturing operations for cross-laminated timber, or CLT, with a “state-of-the-art equipment line,” company officials said. As part of the sizable local development, SmartLam will hire more than 75 new employees by the end of 2019, according to the company. The deal will breathe life into the former heart of the Plum Creek timber empire and help fuel the meteoric rise of an engineered wood product that is increasingly gaining traction as an innovative building material.