Fort Collins approves $2.1 million in rebates for Woodward

FORT COLLINS — Woodward Inc. will receive $2.1 million in rebates of use tax and development fees, following final approval this week by the Fort Collins City Council.

On a 4-3 vote, with council members Bob Overbeck, Ross Cunniff and Kristin Stephens dissenting, the council gave second-reading approval to rebating the fees that Woodward (Nasdaq: WWD) paid on its new 101-acre corporate campus on the site of the former Link-N-Greens golf course between Lincoln and Mulberry avenues and east of Lemay Avenue.

The council gave initial approval to the rebate at its May 5 meeting.

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The rebate was based on the terms of a 2013 agreement between Woodward, the city and the Downtown Development Authority that provided incentives for it to develop the new campus. Under the pact, Woodward is owed $3.5 million in rebates for the use tax and fees it paid in 2014, but 40 percent of the money is being withheld by the city until the company’s Fort Collins workforce reaches 1,400 employees.

Money for the rebate comes from the city’s general, street expansion and capital-improvement expansion budgets.

The first phase of Woodward’s $250 million relocation from its longtime presence on East Drake Road is to include corporate headquarters and Industrial Turbomachinery Systems division manufacturing buildings, which are expected to be open late this year.

The council approved an $88,000 rebate to Woodward in 2014, and the company may be eligible for up to $16.7 million from the DDA and $6.8 million in rebates from the city.

Founded in 1870, Woodward designs, manufactures and services control systems and their components for aircraft engines, industrial engines and turbines, and other equipment.