By Brice Wallace
A pair of companies will expand their operations at the Ogden Hinckley Airport over the next few years, creating a combined 170 jobs.
Borsight, which will add 95 jobs, and a2b Fulfillment Inc., adding 75, were among three companies approved for tax credit incentives this month by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board. Centrify, based in California, also was approved for an incentive, tied to creating 200 jobs in Utah.
Borsight, involved in modernizing the avionics and mission systems of large military aircraft such as the C-130, will create the 95 jobs over seven years, with the jobs paying an average of $109,000. The $6.3 million project will involve doubling the company’s footprint at the airport by duplicating its existing hangar facility. The new space will be large enough to handle the U.S. Air Force’s KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft and commercial Boeing 737s, the company said.
Based in Ogden, Borsight has been a prime contractor for the Air Force and NATO. It has employees in four states and representatives in three foreign countries.
“GOED’s commitment to Borsight will be fantastic for all of Weber County,” Martin O’Loughlin, a Borsight executive, said in a prepared statement. “We are grateful to GOED for helping to make this possible. Our leadership team, and the leaders from Ogden City who helped make this possible, all strongly believe that Borsight’s significant investment in new facilities will attract other aviation companies to the area.
“Building on this scale assures other aerospace firms that the Ogden aerospace-industrial sector is the right place to be. They grow more confident that their own relocation to Ogden will be a profitable move. So, this incentive is more powerful than just helping to create 95 new jobs; it has the potential for revitalizing the entire aviation ecosystem at the airport.”
Terrence Bride, business development division manager for Ogden, said Borsight is important to the city’s plans for aerospace recruitment and expansion.
“We are developing a new airport business park, and in that area of the airport, we are supporting Borsight with the expansion that they have already made,” Bride told the GOED board. “We have made significant investments into infrastructure there and we plan to make significant additional investments in infrastructure at the airport itself. … We intend to continue work in freight development and commercial air service and, of course, supporting our general aviation at the Ogden airport, so you’ll see some good things in the next few years.”
The company’s tax credit incentive is for up to $825,008. Over seven years, the project is expected to pay wages of $33.3 million and generate new state tax revenue of $4.1 million.
“Borsight’s existing facility is the largest facility at the Ogden airport, and due to some new government contracts, the company is on the cusp of doubling revenues,” Val Hale, GOED executive director, said in a prepared statement. “We’re looking forward to their success and are happy to be a part of their continued growth and expansion.”
“Northern Utah continues to be a hotbed for aerospace innovation,” said Theresa Foxley, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah. “We are proud to see a Utah company growing at home.”
A2b Fulfillment will create 75 jobs over five years, with the jobs paying an average of $55,000.
Based in Georgia, the company provides third-party logistics services, including over fulfillment, customer care and value-added services. It has more than 560,000 square feet of warehousing and contact center space in the U.S. and can serve most consumers and retailers within two days.
“Utah is an excellent distribution location for servicing the West Coast,” Ayal Latz, a2b president, said in a prepared statement. “We now will reach 94 percent of U.S. households in two days. The state has created a business-friendly environment, and boasts a strong, educated workforce. We intend to be a great asset to the community at large, by creating jobs, investing in the community and servicing the logistics needs of both our national clients and the businesses in Utah.”
Mel Lavitt, chairman of the GOED board’s incentives committee, said Utah faced competition for the project from Nevada. He called the company “the Little Engine that could compete with Amazon.”
“This company alone, after they locate here in Ogden,” Bride said, “will account for more shipping packages being delivered out of Ogden than all of the other shippers combined in the city of Ogden.”
The GOED board approved a tax credit incentive for a2b of up to $54,647. The $840,000 project is expected to result in $13.3 million in wages over five years and new state tax revenues of $546,471 during that time.
“We are excited to support Ogden in one of their proactive recruitment efforts,” Hale said. “Ogden is in a prime location to accommodate a2b Fulfillment’s expansion while enabling them to ship to their customers quicker. Expanding in Ogden will allow a2b Fulfillment to drive down prices and stimulate creative solutions to meet distribution requirements.”
“As the ‘Crossroads of the West,’ Utah continues to be one of the best places for warehouse and distribution operations,” Foxley said. “We look forward to the success a2b Fulfillment will find in Utah.”
Cybersecurity company Centrify, founded in 2004 and based in Santa Clara, California, will grow its engineering team as it adds 200 jobs in Utah over five years. The new jobs will have an annual average salary of over $95,000. Its exact location has not been announced.
Centrify has more than 500 employees at multiple locations. It has 10 employees in Murray and has had customer support and sales development teams in Utah since 2014.
“We’re seeing significant growth and momentum as more and more customers continue to choose Centrify to protect against the leading cyber attack vector — compromised credentials,” Tom Kemp, Centrify’s chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement. “Our strategic relationship with the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development allows us to take advantage of top engineering talent and accelerate innovation and product development in Zero Trust Security.”
Lavitt said Utah faced competition for the project from Santa Clara and from Bellevue, Washington.
“We’re really excited about this project,” said Thomas Wadsworth, director of corporate growth and business development for GOED. “It plays well into our developing cybersecurity cluster that we have. The university programs here — most notably the University of Utah and UVU (Utah Valley University) — have developed some specific programs around cybersecurity, so we think this will only bolster that sub-cluster that we have developing in the state.”
Centrify’s incentive is in the form of a tax credit of up to $556,944. The $4.5 million project is expected to pay total wages of $69.2 million over five years and generate new state revenues of $2.8 million over that period.
“Utah continues to lead the country with the greatest percentage of tech job growth in the nation with almost 8 percent in 2016,” Hale said. “We’re pleased Centrify is increasing its investment here. With talented graduates from our universities, our workforce will enable Centrify to accelerate its product development and enhance its operations both in the U.S. and abroad.”
“Centrify is one of many companies tapping into the strong and highly educated IT workforce in Utah,” Foxley said. “We have enjoyed working with Centrify over the past three years and are excited to see this project come to fruition.”