The following projects were approved at the August 2021 Colorado Economic Development Commission meeting. The Colorado Economic Development Commission (EDC) develops incentive packages to assist with existing business expansions and new company relocations to grow jobs in all regions of the state. They typically meet on the third Thursday of every month.
The incentives requiring approval for these kinds of project are:
- Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit
- Strategic Fund Job Growth Incentive
- Location Neutral (LONE) Worker Incentive
These awards do not guarantee that the companies will accept the offer and/or expand or relocate to Colorado.
Project updates and recent announcements
Project Triangle, Pterodynamics, a California-based aviation and air taxi company, announced that it has chosen Colorado Springs. The EDC approved an award of Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits for 186 jobs in July 2021.
Project Robotico
The advanced manufacturing company behind Project Robotico is based in metropolitan Denver and builds packaging machinery. Due to the nature of the company, further identification would jeopardize the company’s confidentiality. The company leadership, with connections to Texas, is considering that state as well as Colorado as it searches for a new facility that can accommodate its fast-growing workforce.
Jobs
The company has grown from about 30 employees in Colorado to 50 in the last three years and has outgrown their current location. Project Robotico is anticipated to create 163 jobs over eight years. Most of the jobs will be fabricators and assemblers. The annual average wage of the jobs will be $77,298, which is 110% of the annual average wage in Arapahoe County.
Incentive
An award of $1,092,122 in performance-based Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits over an 8-year period, 96 months, is requested from the EDC for the creation of 163 net new full time jobs.
Considerations
This project would support the state’s economic goals by creating net new jobs in advanced manufacturing, one of the State’s key advanced industries; demonstrating that industrial companies can grow in the metropolitan Denver area; and retaining relatively high-paying manufacturing jobs in Colorado.
Project Aardvark
The company behind Project Aardvark is a space logistics company focused on in-orbit servicing of satellites. Project Aardvark represents the company relocating its headquarters and engineering team from San Francisco to a more favorable environment for growth. Important considerations include cost, access to talent, and support for entrepreneurial endeavors.
Jobs
The project anticipates creating 196 jobs. They are primarily hiring aerospace and software engineers, technicians and business development professionals at an average annual wage of $95,867, which is 127% the average annual wage of Denver County.
Incentive
Up to $4,618,688 in performance-based Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit over an 8-year period, 96 months, is requested from the EDC.
Considerations
This project would support the state’s economic goals by creating 196 net new jobs in a key advanced industry and further diversifying the nationally-significant aerospace cluster in the Front Range by attracting an innovative, early-stage company.
Project Palace
The European company behind Project Palace is one of the largest online sportsbooks in the world. It offers users a software platform for betting on sports events. The company, which has a 42-person office on the east coast and no employees currently in Colorado, is seeking a location for a US technology hub. The company expects to grow quickly as it gains US market share and more states permit online sports betting. (By popular referendum, Colorado was one of the first states, and still among only 10, to legalize, regulate, and tax online-only sports betting following federal legalization).
Jobs
Project Palace is anticipated to create 441 jobs over eight years with an annual average wage of $96,315, which is 128% of the annual average wage in Denver. The jobs include software and data engineers and customer service roles. Within Colorado, the company is considering metropolitan Denver.
Incentive
Up to $7,525,623 in performance-based Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits over an 8-year period, 96 months, is requested from the EDC.
Considerations
This project would support the state’s economic goals by creating high-paying technology jobs; demonstrating that Colorado’s early regulation of online sports betting can have positive economic effects in addition to its ability to generate tax direct tax revenue; and attracting a European company that is experienced with and eager to engage with the State and our institutions of higher education to design work-based learning partnerships.
Project Gold
The company behind Project Gold is a California-based bioscience company focused on genomic sequencing and making it accessible to both academia and clinical studies. The company is looking to open a secondary location that can be the primary location for future manufacturing operations, specifically in enzymes, reagents, and other lab consumables in support of their sequencing platform solutions. Additionally, the site would support R&D efforts and might be considered in the future for a headquarters relocation. They are also considering locations in California and Massachusetts.
Jobs
They currently have 6 employees in Colorado. The project will create 241 net new jobs, 15 of which are anticipated to be remote jobs for workers from rural Colorado communities, through the LONE worker program. They are primarily hiring chemists and biologists, engineers, and administrative workers with an average annual wage of $111,369, 148% average annual wage of Denver County.
Incentive
Up to $4,504,239 in performance-based Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits over an 8-year period, 96 months for the creation of 421 net new full time jobs plus a $75,000 LONE worker bonus for the creation of 15 remote, rural jobs.
Considerations
This project would support the state’s economic goals by creating 241 high paying net new jobs in the economy adding to the Colorado bioscience cluster--one of the fastest growing in the nation.