Boulder's first business incentive award worth watching

It looks like Solekai Systems Corp., a digital video engineering company needing more space, could be the first company to successfully navigate Boulder's new business incentive program. We've been keeping a close watch at the Boulder County Business Report on the program, and broke this as our top story.

Solekai Systems Corp. is seeking 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, Ken Furie, vice president and general manager of Solekai's Boulder Engineering Center, told BCBR. The digital video engineering consulting company is headquartered in San Diego and opened the Boulder satellite in August 2005.

I ran into Liz Hanson, who oversees the incentive program, and she said after the story appeared, there was a jump in calls from businesses asking more about the incentives program. A full description of the Boulder incentive program is online.

The program runs for one year, then city council will evaluate its results. Needless to say, Boulder is a latecomer to the idea of actually helping businesses stay in the city, but under the new economic vitality program, a lot of talk has finally resulted in some real action.

Keep an eye on how this all goes, but I will predict once the city adds up why keeping high-paying jobs in the city rather than letting even more of them head off to neighboring office parks around the county, the program will become a regular part of the way the city does business.

Read the full story on Solekai's incentive application at BCBR archives, which are now completely free.