Meeting Summary Page 1 MEETING DATE March 17, 2016 1625 Broadway, Suite 2700 Denver, CO 80202 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION MEETING SUMMARY March 17, 2016 9:00 a.m. 11:15 a.m. MEETING PARTICIPANTS A. Commission Members J. J. Ament, Denise Brown, Carrie Schiff, Chuck Murphy, Millete Birhanemaskel, Jay Seaton and Howard Gelt. B. Guests Johnathan Taylor, Ed Sealover, Aldo Svaldi, Laura Brandt, Ted Telford, Bryan Bryant, Dr. Carmen Simone, Luke, Fred, Mike Van Den Bosch, Rich and Linda Burns. C. Staff Fiona Arnold, Jeff Kraft, Simon Fox, Ken Jensen, Angela Mendez, Michelle Hadwiger, Sam Bailey, Katie Woslager, Holly Shrewsbury, Lauren Sloan, Donald Zuckerman, Courtney Potts, Taylor Tschida and Virginia Davis. DECISION/ACTION ITEMS 1. The Economic Development Commission approved the EDC meeting summary from the February 11, 2016 and March 9, 2016 meetings. 2. The Economic Development Commission approved the following items: Project Operator; Project Arnold; Project Windstream; Colorado School of Public Health, mhealth Impact Laboratory; RJS Trinidad State Junior College s application to participate; Las Animas County RJS zone, and Project Cheetah. MEETING SUMMARY A. Meeting Called to Order Ament called the meeting to order. Brown moved approval of both the February 11 th and March 9 th meeting summaries. Ament noted one change to the March 9 th Summary where the EDC voted to enter back into Open Session as opposed to Executive Session which the draft minutes currently state. This correction has been made. M/S/P Brown, Murphy meeting summaries approved with the noted change. B. Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit: Michelle Hadwiger Project Operator Hadwiger presented Project Operator. Project Operator is a Denver-based, privately-held firm focused on providing communications technology for online interfacing. The company began in 2000 and has grown to over 160 full-time positions. With success in growing its international and domestic customer-base, the company is now reviewing potential new markets for expansion. Project Operator is evaluating Colorado,
Meeting Summary Page 2 Georgia, and Illinois to expand its ability to service new and existing customers as they believe these markets possess the talent required to grow the company. Staff is requesting a performance-based JGITC in the amount of $2,420,145 for the creation of up to 160 net new full-time jobs with a minimum average annual wage of $64,480, 100% of Denver County s average annual wage, in support of this project. M/S/P Murphy, Schiff project approved as presented and recommended by staff. Project Arnold Hadwiger presented Project Arnold. Project Arnold is a Nevada-based clean tech start-up company that provides and operates proprietary facilities that transform industrial waste into renewable energy or products. Project Arnold is considering an expansion in Nevada or a relocation of its headquarters and development of a clean tech facility in Colorado. If the project selects Colorado, the company would relocate executive leadership from Nevada to Colorado and establish a facility that would hire 24 net new full-time jobs. Staff is requesting a performance-based JGITC in the amount of $400,353 for the creation of up to 24 net new full-time jobs with an average annual wage of $46,644, 100% of Weld County s average annual wage, in support of this project. Ament asked about the cost of talent acquisition in Colorado versus Nevada. Hadwiger said the higher costs in the Colorado market is reflective of the executive level positions that would move here in addition to the facility. Update of Previously Approved Projects Hadwiger provided an update of previously approved projects. Partners Group will be moving its headquarters to Broomfield. Partners Group anticipates exceeding their goals in job creation here in Colorado with some of the jobs being hired locally and some will be relocated from San Francisco and New York. Currently staff has ten outstanding projects that have been approved by the EDC that represent over 3300 jobs and we expect to have a final decision on the majority of these in the near future. We are also managing a pipeline of 34 projects with the potential to create over 9000 jobs. C. Strategic Fund: Jeff Kraft, Michelle Hadwiger Kraft provided a Strategic Fund (SF) Balance Forecast which currently shows a balance of $10,668,647 assuming the pipeline of projects. Windstream Hadwiger presented Project Windstream. Project Windstream is a manufacturer of pipe fitting technology for industrial, commercial, and residential applications. The company s global headquarters is in Germany and operates locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Latin America with its North American headquarters located in the Midwest. The Company is currently evaluating Colorado for a headquarters relocation and major build-to-suit investment. The Company plans to relocate executive leadership, professional, and operational positions in early 2017 to support the company s continued growth in North America and plans are to construct a new
Meeting Summary Page 3 60,000 square foot commercial building with an estimated cost for the land and commercial building of $12 million. Staff is requesting approval of a performance-based Strategic Fund Incentive in the amount of $475,000 for the creation of up to 190 net new full-time jobs with an average annual wage of $77,285, 100% of Broomfield County s average annual wage, in support of this project. D. Advanced Industry: Katie Woslager Woslager presented the Colorado School of Public Health, mhealth Impact Laboratory. Dr. Sheana Bull established the mhealth Impact Laboratory in 2013. The lab integrates the bioscience industry and information technology industry and offers substantial opportunity to demonstrate the impact and facilitate growth of digital health innovations while contributing to digital health workforce development. Although there has been an explosion in mobile and digital health applications (apps) available for consumers via their smartphones and tablets, there is a specific need for a third-party scientific validation system through which to vet these apps, and ensure their adherence to federal security and privacy regulations. We are proposing to create the infrastructure for such a system with this grant from the AIA. Staff is requesting approval of a $499,046 grant in support of this project. Brown asked if they had any private partners putting funds into this project. Woslager said they do not have private partners. The program requirement is to match the dollar amount $2:$1. We don t stipulate where the match comes from. However, I do think it would be helpful in future if they were to solicit outside industry support as they move forward. Ament asked if it was unusual for a project to not have private partners. Brown said no it s not unusual but that it s a better model when they see private partners that have skin in the game. Woslager said they are working on leveraging outside partners. Brown asked if this project was vetted through the Bioscience Committee. Woslager said it was. E. Rural JumpStart: Ken Jensen Jensen presented the Rural JumpStart (RJS) Las Animas County Application. Trinidad State Junior College has applied to participate in the Rural Jump Start program, and has applied to form a zone in Las Animas County. Staff has reviewed these applications, and we have found the applications meet the program requirements. Staff is requesting approval of the Trinidad State Junior College s application to participate, and approval of their application to form the RJS zone in Las Animas County as the second of three RJS zones for 2016.
Meeting Summary Page 4 M/S/P Brown, Schiff application to participate and zone approved as presented and recommended by staff. Jensen talked about the pool for remaining zones in 2016. Staff expects three counties to have their applications submitted in time for the May 2016 EDC meeting and recommends formally announcing a deadline for the third zone in 2016 and presenting all of the applications side-by-side at the May meeting. Presumably, one of the applicants would receive approval to be the third and final zone for 2016 and the other two would receive pre-approval for benefits starting on January 1, 2017. Schiff asked why May 1 st for the deadline. Jensen said the May 1 st date would allow staff three weeks to review and process the applications and prepare them for the May EDC meeting. Schiff was concerned about losing applicants due to an unofficial deadline. Jensen said he has been working with the applicants and does not anticipate losing any of them due to the proposed deadline. Schiff recommended that staff expand the criteria because the final applicants could all have one company in their pipeline. Staff should look at the criteria we used for identifying the county s and use that as an overlay. This would help in the case where you might have three applications that look exactly alike. The Commission communicated to staff to move forward with this direction. F. Regional Tourism Act: Jeff Kraft Kraft presented a clean copy of the Pueblo Amendment to Resolution No.1 and the Pueblo Release and Settlement Agreement. Pueblo City Council will have an in-depth read of both documents at their meeting on March 28 th and we expect final approval from the City Council on that date and we expect the Pueblo Urban Renewal Authority to approve the final drafts at their March 22 nd meeting. Staff anticipates finalizing these documents by the end of March. Kraft sad the City of Aurora would like to provide the Commission with a site visit to the Gaylord project. This would be optional for the board members. We are currently working on a date for the site visit and will keep the Commission posted. Kraft presented the RFP for bond underwriting services in Colorado Springs for the US Olympic Museum. This ties back to our conversation with Colorado Springs at our September EDC meeting in which it was discussed that some processes were not completely open to the public as initially promised in their RTA application. Based on our feedback, they are now doing RFPs in general which is good for transparency. G. Office of Film Television and Media: Lauren Sloan, Donald Zuckerman Sloan presented the Film budget which currently shows $1,512,623 available for future funding. Sloan presented Project Cheetah. Project Cheetah is a Boulder-based company that develops and publishes mobile apps and games for mobile devices. Project Cheetah plans to create a game simulation based on a popular board game. The app will be available for download on several different platforms. The project has a preliminary Colorado budget of $997,500. Project Cheetah has estimated a production workforce of 9 for this project, all of which will be Colorado contracted employees and new hires. These positions include producers, directors, designers, engineers, artists and animators.
Meeting Summary Page 5 The estimated qualified local expenditures of the application would result in a maximum rebate of $199,500. Ament asked staff if the proposed workforce will be new hires. Zuckerman said they would all be new hires for this project. Sloan said making sure that the proposed workforce are all new hires is a question staff asks of the projects when they first begin to work with them on submitting an application to the Commission. H. EDC and AI Budgets: Jeff Kraft, Michelle Hadwiger Kraft presented the EDC budget which currently shows $12,943,647 in available funds for future projects. Woslager presented the AI budget which currently shows $3,087,207 in available funds for future projects. I. Other: Jeff Kraft, Fiona Arnold Arnold provided an OEDIT program update. Kraft said the next meeting is currently scheduled for Thursday, April 21 st. With all items discussed, the board stands adjourned.