The following projects were approved at the November 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 Chapter
Summary
The company behind Project Chapter is a distiller and brewer located in California that produces spirits, canned cocktails, and canned beer. The company expects their strong consumer growth to continue and seeks a location that aligns with their brand identity and gives them distribution access to the western US. In addition to Colorado, the company is considering Reno, Nevada. Within Colorado, the company is considering Montrose. In addition to brand alignment, the company is considering differences in the cost and availability of labor and cost of real estate in each market.
Jobs
Project Chapter, should it occur in Colorado, expects to create 40 net new jobs at an average annual wage of $53,076, which is 128 percent of the average annual wage in Montrose County. The jobs will include production roles, which make up about half of the net new jobs, and sales and delivery roles. The company will also create a number of “retail” jobs to staff a tasting room and restaurant planned on site; those jobs have been excluded from this project and would not be incentivized. The company currently has 26 employees, none of whom are in Colorado.
Incentive
Up to $292,763 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 net new jobs in the economy; creating high-paying production jobs in a rural Just Transition community; and demonstrating that the Western Slope can be a viable point of distribution for a multi-state Western US market.