Jan. 9—City staff pitched the Colorado Springs City Council Monday on incentives for a high-tech manufacturing company planning to expand in town and add hundreds of jobs.

The expansion, known as Project Octo, represents an $880 million investment to increase the output of an existing manufacturing plant. The as-yet-undisclosed company expects to add 418 jobs over six years, said Bob Cope, Colorado Springs' economic development officer. The jobs could pay an average of $72,148, according to the city.

Project Octo would be the third in a string of economic wins for the community including a new manufacturing facility planned by Entegris, a global supplier of electronic materials, and an expansion planned by Zivaro, a Denver-based information and technology company. The council heard about tax incentives for Entegris and Zivaro as well, projects recently celebrated by local officials.

"This has been a really unprecedented run of economic development projects of this kind of size and quality," Cope said.

While certain business sectors are facing economic headwinds, such as inflation, Cope said, the effects are not equal across industries.

"Certain industries are experiencing strong demand and significant backorders for their products and services. They have an opportunity to invest and increase productivity to meet the existing demand," he said.

Project Octo could be an expansion of Microchip Technology Inc. because it was described by the city as a "leading provider of smart, connected and secure embedded control solutions." Microchip Technology describes itself in the exact same way on its website.

Cope said the name of the employer will be announced once the company has completed its internal processes and determines it is appropriate.

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The expansion is planned to include $97 million in building improvements, $7 million in furniture and fixtures and $776 million in machinery and equipment, according to the city's presentation.

The city's incentives in tax rebates to encourage the retention and expansion of the company could total $8.3 million over 10 years. The city would still bring in about $36 million in revenue and the city as a whole could see $1.4 billion in additional gross metropolitan product, a measure of goods and services, from the expansion.

Even though the company is local, Colorado Springs is still competing for the expansion, Cope said.

"We need to make sure we secure that investment in Colorado Springs," he said.

The city is offering similar tax rebate incentives to Entegris and Zivaro.

Zivaro is slated to receive $27,975 in tax rebates over 10 years, according to the city.

The company is also approved to receive $8.6 million in performance-based Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits through the state to be disbursed over an eight-year period and $57,500 in a performance-based Strategic Fund LONE Worker incentive given over a five-year period, The Gazette reported previously. In addition, the company was expected receive about $500,000 — from the city and the Chamber & EDC's Colorado Springs Deal Closing Fund.

Entegris is expected to receive about $6.6 million in city tax rebate incentives over 15 years while generating $48 million for the city. A local incentive package put together by the Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC, along with several development organizations, utilities and municipal institutions, is valued at $115 million, The Gazette previously reported.

The council reviewed the performance-based incentive packages for all three companies Monday and while the board didn't vote during the workshop, no one expressed opposition or concern about the incentives and they are likely to be approved at an upcoming meeting.