Specialty-food company eyeing NoCo for operations center

DENVER — An unidentified specialty-food producer is considering building a new operations center in Northern Colorado and is eligible for tax incentives should the project move forward. 

The Colorado Economic Development Commission approved a tax-incentive package Thursday for the company, identified only as Project Summertime.

It is the commission’s practice not to identify companies the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade is recruiting until incentives are accepted, a process that can take months. 

Project Summertime is a Colorado-based company with 55 employees that was recently bought by a private equity firm, according to OEDIT documents. 

Project Summertime “is planning to develop a new operations center to service and supply its growing market in the Southeast U.S., with space for office, product development, production and distribution functions,” OEDIT director of global business development Michelle Hadwiger said.

It is targeting Weld and Larmier counties for the operations center.

The company was approved for a $960,840 performance-based incentive package in exchange for a pledge to create 82 new jobs over an eight-year period. 

Those jobs, which would be primarily production line work and sales roles, would pay an annual salary of $63,067, which is 114% and 116% of the respective average annual salary in Weld and Larimer counties. 

“That’s great for Weld County,” EDC chairwoman Carrie Schiff said. “I hope they come in and choose us.”

Colorado is competing with South Carolina and Tennessee for the project. 

“The locations under consideration in the Southeast are also lower-cost markets for hiring and for real estate relative to the Colorado locations under consideration,” according to Hadwiger.

Should the company choose another state, it could jeopardize existing jobs in Colorado, she said. 

“We’ve lost some natural products [market] share to Chicago recently,” Hadwiger said. If Project Summertime elects to remain in Colorado, it would “help us maintain at least the density [of natural product companies] that we still have. That would be really great.”

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