Enterprise zone grows to attract new employers

The town of Wellington is expanding its enterprise zone by 201 acres in anticipation of attracting two new employers to the area.

The Colorado Economic Development Commission, which has oversight of the state program, approved the expanded enterprise zone on Sept. 6.

The expansion adds to the town’s existing 860-acre enterprise zone. Roughly 20 percent, or 440 acres, of the existing zone falls within Wellington’s town limits. The balance is adjacent to the boundaries, within the town’s planned growth area.

The expansion represents a similar scenario; about 165 acres of the new portion lie just north of the town’s boundaries and west of Interstate 25.

Enterprise zones offer a package of state tax credits and exemptions to businesses that locate within them. The purpose is to provide incentives that encourage businesses expanding or locating in economically distressed areas. The zones are administered by the counties they are located within.

The enterprise zone program began in Larimer County in 1993 at the request of cities within the county, said Lew Wymisner, assistant director of the Larimer County Workforce Center and also enterprise zone administrator.

The new enterprise zone in Wellington may be the first in that town to succeed in attracting a new employer or employers, said Mayor Larry Noel.

“We have a couple of companies that are looking to possibly relocate up here on a couple of the parcels that we are adding to the enterprise zone,” Noel said. “That’s the basic reason for expanding.”

The two prospective businesses are engaged in manufacturing and production and would employ between 100 and 200 each, Noel said. He declined to name them.

Having the enterprise zone adds to the incentives Wellington can offer new or expanding businesses.

“The town’s not wealthy. We can’t give them a lot of money or land. We can reduce fees, give them taps like water and sewer.”

The tax incentives offered by locating in an enterprise zone don’t represent a windfall, Wymisner said, “but it does mean they may pay less in state taxes.”

That means businesses may have more capital to reinvest as a result, he noted.

Among the activities that can qualify businesses for tax credits are adding new employees, offering employer-sponsored health insurance and providing job training programs.

Zone added benefit

Enterprise zones represent an added benefit in the form of tax relief to companies considering locating within them, said Jacob Castillo, vice president of Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp.

“We have had clients look only at enterprise zone properties within the state of Colorado and within the Northern Colorado region,” Castillo said.

While enterprise zones probably aren’t the only factor when a company decides to expand or relocate, their presence is often a draw.

“It is certainly a factor that weighs into the location decision that a company makes when considering sites throughout Northern Colorado,” Castillo said.

Statewide in 2004, 4,815 businesses qualified for one or more enterprise zone tax credits. These businesses created 5,200 new jobs, while retaining 116,000 existing positions. Enterprise zone-located businesses invested $880 million in new equipment and claimed $25.7 million in tax credits.

In Northern Colorado, meanwhile, the move to expand the enterprise zone “shows Wellington is in a growth mode and an economic development mode trying to add jobs as opposed to having people drive to and from Wellington” to work, Wymisner said.

The town of 5,300 offers comparatively inexpensive real estate and a willing workforce, Noel said, noting the town has long served as bedroom community sending its workers elsewhere.

Noel said that Wellington seems to have established some growth-related momentum recently. “When you get your population up there, things start happening. Finally.”

A new grocery store, new medical clinic, new dental office and a new elementary school are among the changes the town is seeing.

Wellington, said its mayor, “is starting to vibe a little bit.”

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