Feb. 7—The El Paso County Board of Commissioners indicated their support for plans for a high-tech manufacturing center with "national security impacts" on Tuesday when the board unanimously agreed to allocate approximately $9.2 million in incremental tax revenues to the project.

Commissioners voted 5-0 to allocate the future property tax revenues over 25 years to help finance the proposed urban renewal plan, known as Project Garnet, in northwest Colorado Springs.

Massachusetts-based Entegris, a global supplier of electronic materials that support the semiconductor and other high-tech industries that has a longtime presence in the Springs, wants to spend as much as $631 million to build the manufacturing center, an approximately 500,000 square-foot facility on about 88 acres of commercial land at 301 S. Rockrimmon Blvd.

Commissioner Stan VanderWerf, whose district will house the center, said the project is integral to keeping microelectronic manufacturing, including the semiconductors that support U.S. defense systems, stateside.

"The work that this particular company will be doing will be a key component in helping us address national security issues with regard to integrated circuit manufacturing," he said. "It's important to consider use of taxpayer dollars (and) overall national strategy challenges."

That facility would constitute the first phase of the property development at an anticipated $4.9 million in property tax revenue, county Chief Financial Officer Nikki Simmons told the commissioners during a Jan. 24 work session.

"Depending on how things go for (Entegris), there's a possibility of Phase Two," which could be a second facility of the same size slated for around 2028 at the remaining $4.3 million, Simmons said.

Economic Development Department Director Crystal LaTier said the project is "one of the biggest attraction projects for the state of Colorado in recent years" and that Colorado Springs was chosen out of several potential sites across the country.

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"This level of package of incentives needs to happen to ensure that this Entegris project moves forward," LaTier told the board in January. "If it moves forward, it will provide extraordinary economic benefit and impact to our region."

Entegris expects to add nearly 600 jobs to the area over five years, LaTier said, with the average wage around $75,700. It could also create around 4,000 construction jobs during the development stage.

The center could have a nearly $2.5 billion local economic impact over the next five years, the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and EDC President and CEO Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer said in December, when Entegris announced its planned expansion, according to previous reporting by The Gazette.

The Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC and several development organizations, utilities and municipal institutions also offered more than $115 million in incentives to the company.

The package includes funding from the city, rebates from Colorado Springs Utilities, the creation of an urban renewal district and money from the joint city-Chamber & EDC Deal Closing Fund.

Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority Executive Director Jariah Walker on Tuesday said Academy School District 20 and the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District have agreed to contribute future property tax revenues.

Project Garnet is now set to move before the City Council during its regular meeting Feb. 14, when it is expected to consider resolutions approving agreements between the city and the Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority for the project.

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