The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) announces that Pax8, a cloud distribution technology company based in Greenwood Village, Colo., has selected Colorado as home to its latest expansion project. Already recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in Colorado, Pax8’s projected expansion will create up to 1,852 jobs in Colorado over the next eight years.
Pax8 was approved for both a Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit (JGITC) and a Strategic Fund incentive at the Thursday, February 20 Economic Development Commission meeting under the codename Project Sky. Colorado was competing with Atlanta and San Antonio, Texas for the expansion.
Pax8 becomes the first award recipient for creating net new jobs within qualified rural areas of the state through OEDIT’s new Location Neutral Employment (LONE) incentive. The projected average annual wage of the jobs to be created by this expansion is $106,112 which is equivalent to 145% of the average annual wage in Denver County.
The average wage requirement for the entire pool of employees is calculated by the urban county where the company is based, regardless of where the location neutral employees associated with the project are based.
“PaX8’s commitment to the Colorado market and its expansion that will bring 1,800 jobs to Colorado signals to the business community that Colorado is a talent-rich hub for companies looking to scale,” said Global Business Development Director Michelle Hadwiger. “Colorado has been synonymous with the start-up and entrepreneurial ecosystem for decades and it’s great to see the convergence of start-ups and scale-ups simultaneously experience success. It’s equally rewarding to have a local company thoughtfully distribute their workforce in urban and rural areas, as the first LONE program recipient for location neutral jobs.”
Pax8 CEO John Street said in a release, “We see so much opportunity and talent in the region to help us maintain our competitive edge and continue to be the world’s best place to buy cloud products. As a homegrown Colorado business, we are excited about our continued job growth and commitment to expand our operations here in Colorado.”
Both the JGITC and Strategic Fund are performance based. JGITC offers a state tax credit linked to payroll taxes and the Strategic Fund pays a cash award for each rural job created and retained for a year. The Strategic Fund incentive is paid out once at the end of the five-year incentive period.