A tax rebate deal that could help bring 525 jobs to Broomfield was approved last week by the City Council.
The deal would give TransFirst Holdings a tax rebate of up to $48,244 over 10 years if the company moves its software development unit to the Mountain View Corporate Center.
TransFirst is a payment-processing company headquartered in New York. It has about 770 employees and a large office in Louisville, according to its website.
In exchange for the rebate, TransFirst must have 450 employees at its Broomfield office by the end of 2010 and up to 525 employees on staff by 2012.
If TransFirst does move to Broomfield, it would be the city’s seventh-largest employer, just behind pharmaceutical manufacturer Sandoz, which employs 550. Level 3 Communications is the biggest, with 2,000 employees.
The tax rebate will return to TransFirst half of the use and personal property tax it pays Broomfield over the next 10 years. Broomfield will net $57,994 in those 10 years because TransFirst will not be rebated the use tax devoted to the Parks and Open Space Fund.
The move isn’t official yet, Christine Carrier, TransFirst’s national facilities director, said after the Tuesday meeting. Company leadership still has to approve the move and is a couple of weeks away from signing the lease.
Maybe that is why City Council members and staff were unusually quiet before the deal was approved in an 8-0 council vote. Councilmen Bob Gaiser and Dennis McCloskey were absent.
City and County Manager George Di Ciero gave a brief introduction of the deal, and Broomfield Economic Development Corp. CEO Don Dunshee said the relocation would “make a significant dent” in the amount of vacant office space in the city. TransFirst did not make a presentation.
The muted reaction was a big contrast to the City Council’s enthusiasm when much smaller companies received similar deals in the past year.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Pat Quinn speculated no one wanted to jinx the TransFirst deal by speaking of it too soon.
