DigitalGlobe’s parent shifts global HQ to Colo.

International space company to consolidate admin ops in Denver area and add 800 jobs

Make way for Maxar Technologies. The parent of Westminster’s DigitalGlobe said Wednesday that it is moving its global headquarters to Colorado and bringing 800 jobs to the area.

The international space company, which until a year ago was based in Canada, will consolidate administrative operations in the Denver area as part of its recent $2.4 billion October purchase of DigitalGlobe, known for taking high-resolution photos of Earth from space. But beyond centralizing duties such as accounting, finance and taxes, Maxar officials expect to grow its technical workforce in Colorado.

“The vast majority (of employees) we have are engineers and scientists. We certainly hope to have significant growth in the DigitalGlobe business,” said Maxar CEO Howard L. Lance, who will move to Colorado. “We are looking more broadly at Colorado as a place to grow our business. I can’t be specific over what will move here, but we’re making this decision and putting our footprint in Colorado.”

The company, formerly known as MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd., or MDA, and based in Vancouver, British Columbia, was renamed Maxar after the DigitalGlobe purchase. In order to seal the deal and secure future U.S. government contracts, the company a year ago moved its headquarters to San Francisco after hiring Lance, who lived there. But the move was meant to be temporary and most of its administrative staff stayed behind in Canada. Lance said only about 20 people, mostly executives, work in San Francisco. That office

will close in April.

The move is big news for Colorado’s space industry, home to United Launch Alliance and major divisions of Sierra Nevada Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. According to a 2017 report from the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.’s Colorado Space Coalition, the state ranked first in the U.S. for private aerospace employment on a per-capita basis.

That probably factored into Maxar’s decision, said Jay Lindell, who specializes in aerospace and defense industry at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

“The combination of talent, technology, and the aerospace business cluster in Colorado will no doubt continue to help propel Maxar’s growth and will maintain its role as the leading geospatial technology business in the world,” said Lindell, adding he wasn’t involved in getting Maxar to move here.

DigitalGlobe in 2014 moved its headquarters to the 482,000-square-foot Westminster building, an iconic facility with a massive round window that looks like a giant satellite dish. At the time, DigitalGlobe employed 1,400 people.

The company has since cut its workforce and now employs 800 in Westminster and 200 elsewhere in Colorado.

There’s plenty of room in the building to house another 800 workers, the company said.

After acquiring DigitalGlobe, the Maxar execu- tive team was split between San Francisco and Westminster, so there was a concentrated effort to keep everyone together and find the best city for its global headquarters, Lance said. It also considered moving to Herndon, Va., home to its 1,000-person geospatial analysis division Radiant Solutions; and Palo Alto, Calif., home to SSL, which builds satellite and space equipment. Cost of living, access to technical talent and economic incentives were also evaluated. Colorado won.

Last month, the state awarded Maxar a jobgrowth tax credit of $14.3 million. Maxar gets the credit if it moves its headquarters to Colorado and within eight years hires 800 people at an annual wage of $116,917.

On Monday, Westminster city officials amended a 10-year, $6.2 million incentive offered to Digital Globe in 2013, the year before the company decided to move to the city. The amount didn’t change but was extended five years to end in 2028, said John Hall, the city’s economic development director. It offers rebates for some taxes and fees.

Adams County officials did not reveal any incentives offered to Maxar.

Lance credited local officials. “There was a clear advantage in Colorado, and we’re very impressed with Westminster’s probusiness attitude,” he said.

The company employs 6,500 people in Canada and the U.S. Its MDA division in Canada focuses on space robotics, satellite antennas and surveillance.