STATE APPROVES $11 MILLION IN JOB INCENTIVES
Six employers share $11 million in state incentives to create 683 jobs
Colorado’s Economic Development Commission on Thursday approved nearly $11 million in state incentives to six employers in return for the creation of 683 jobs, the bulk of them paying more than $100,000 a year.
Of the six awards, five were job growth incentive tax credits and one was a cash award from the state’s strategic fund. Metro Denver was the targeted location for five of the six employers, but one company was leaning towards Steamboat Springs.
The largest award, a job growth incentive tax credit worth $5.2 million, went to a metro area database company using the code name Project Elektra, which is looking at adding 293 jobs in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois or Nebraska. The jobs will pay an average annual wage of $140,956 a year.
Another information technology firm, Project Red Rocks, received approval of $2.6 million in job growth incentives in return for bring 108 jobs at an average wage of $100,278. The company, which provides backup services in the cloud, is looking to relocate its headquarters from Atlanta to Denver, San Francisco, Wichita or Salt Lake City.
Project Duke, a California-based medical company that makes a device that “remodels collagen,” received $2.3 million if it chooses to move its headquarters to Arapahoe or Douglas counties instead of Nevada and bring 130 new jobs paying an average annual wage of $121,323.
“These companies that pay $120,000 or $140,000 don’t get much resistance, do they?” joked commissioner Dick Monfort on the discussion-free approvals.
Project Selene, a privately held British company with its North American headquarters in Colorado, is looking at building an air purification system manufacturing facility in Denver, Mumbai, or China. The
commission approved $1.17 million if it brings those jobs, paying an average wage of $72,612, to Denver.
Coastal Cloud, a Florida technology firm providing customer relationship management systems, is looking at Routt County for 51 jobs paying an average wage of $73,039. Utah, Montana and Wyoming are also in the running.
Jibe Consulting, an Oregon provider of cloudbased systems using Oracle, received approval for $33,000 from the state strategic fund, matching the incentive package that Denver offered.
Those 34 jobs come at an average annual wage of $73,559.
A few times a year, the commission takes its monthly meeting on the road to gain a perspective on the economy outside of metro Denver. Greeley and Weld County hosted this month.
Monfort, whose family made its wealth in beef packing, shared stories of his childhood in Greeley, including how his grandfather responded to rising complaints about the smells from the burgeoning feedlots. He started paying his bills and payroll in $2 bills. So many of the bills moved through the Greeley economy that people, especially the merchants, quieted up.