First business taps Boulder incentive offer

BOULDER – A Boulder company has taken the city up on the flexible rebate portion of its business incentive program.

Solekai Systems Corp. applied for a rebate of fees and construction-use taxes incurred as part of its move from 1601 Pearl St. to 2440 14th St. in downtown Boulder.

The company is moving to handle growth, said Ken Furie, vice president and general manager of Solekai’s Boulder Engineering Center. The digital video engineering consulting company is headquartered in San Diego and opened the Boulder satellite in August 2005.

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As the Boulder office grew to 35 employees squeezed into 5,000 square feet with plans to more than double its work force in 2007, Furie began to shop around for more space. He looked at Broomfield, Lafayette, Louisville, Longmont and locations in downtown and east Boulder.

The city of Boulder’s rebate incentive was “neither a deal breaker nor deal maker,” Furie said, but it indicates “that the city of Boulder is expressing interest in retaining businesses. It does point to very promising future interactions with the city of Boulder.”

Furie didn’t know what the final rebate would be since all the costs of the remodel were not yet available from building owner J Nold Midyette.

The incentive helped sell the desire to stay in downtown Boulder to corporate back in California, he added.

“As a satellite office, budget for moves is very closely scrutinized, and other cities were offering incentives,” he said. “There are many reasons the downtown Boulder experience is unparalleled. So I needed to accumulate a checklist of evidence to convince my president.”

Furie had worked at corporate headquarters, but brought Solekai to Boulder after making a “quality of life decision” to relocate.

Furie thinks the flexible rebate program is just the start of a business-friendly attitude on the part of the city of Boulder. “It’s our hope that this first step the city has taken will lead to more aggressive, more financially rewarding steps in the future.”

That would be good for Solekai since if the company meets its growth plan, “… we may be ready to grow again in two years, and we want to stay in downtown Boulder.”

Liz Hanson, business liaison for the city of Boulder, is helping a number of companies fill out the necessary paperwork for rebates, including helping them collect permit fee or use tax information already paid and estimating costs for relocations or expansions so they can apply before construction or remodeling has occurred.

“That’s taken a little bit of time working to make sure they have good information and assessing what would be eligible for rebates,” she said.

Rally Software Development Corp. is filling out the forms for a flexible rebate related to its move to 30,000 square feet at 3333 Walnut St. from 8,500 square feet at 1050 Walnut St. and expects to file once it has a clearer idea of the costs of the remodel.

For Boulder-born Rally, the rebate program was a small factor in making the decision to stay in town, said Chief Executive Officer Tim Miller. What was harder was finding a space in Boulder big enough and negotiating a lease. The 65-employee software company plans to hire another 60 during the next year.

“We are very supportive of the program, and we plan to have the numbers in as soon as we have them finalized from our move.” He estimates he’ll be eligible for between $10,000 and $50,000.

Rally has been a strong advocate of the city’s employee training assistance portion of the incentive package, Miller said. The company has a business worth more than $1 million training Agile software leadership and Scrum coaching, two collaborative software development tools.

Boulder’s incentive program

The city of Boulder has allocated $850,000 for its business incentive pilot program in 2007.

Incentives are available for primary employers deriving at least 75 percent of their revenue outside Boulder County.

Incentives include:

_ Flexible rebate ($500,000): Covers a wide range of fees and taxes charged by the city including permit and development review fees and equipment and construction use taxes.

_ Employee training assistance ($50,000): Provides up to $1,000 in matching funds per primary employer for qualified work force improvement training.

_ Owner-occupied loan pool ($300,000): Helps business owners buy owner-occupied real estate for 5 percent down. It is administered by the Colorado Enterprise Fund in conjunction with the SBA’s 504 loan program.

_ Parks and Recreation employee discount: Gives employees of Boulder-based companies who don’t live in Boulder the same rate as residents.

Guidelines: The flexible rebate program requires that businesses meet “social sustainability guidelines.” To be eligible for this incentive, businesses must comply with at least three:

_ Pay a median annual wage equal to or more than the Colorado median annual wage, currently $51,022.

_ Offer and pay for some portion of health insurance for all full-time employees and their dependents.

_ Be an equal opportunity employer that encourages diversity in the work force through proactive hiring practices or diversity training.

_ Actively support the nonprofit sector through monetary donations or giving employees at least one paid day off per year so they can provide support to a Boulder County nonprofit.

_ Offer at least $50 per month in dependent-care assistance to employees who use day care or elder care.

Application forms for flexible rebates and employee training assistance are available online at bouldercolorado.gov.