Brice Wallace
A Texas-based company is considering Utah for a headquarters project that could result in 4,000 jobs in Davis County over a decade.
OmniTeq LLC, based in Bee Cave, Texas, focuses on artificial intelligence and machine learning. It is considering Falcon Hill Aerospace Research Park, a 550-acre development along the western edge of Hill Air Force Base, for its project.
Company officials spoke to the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (Go Utah) board at the board’s regular August meeting. The board approved a nonbinding vote of support for the project, with official incentive approval expected when the board had enough members. That was expected to take place at a special meeting Aug. 16, after Salt Lake Business Journal deadlines.
OmniTeq was established in 2010 and specializes in delivering customized data management, analytics and visualization to commercial and government customers. Among its customers are the Department of Defense, NASA, the intelligence community and civilian agencies.
The incentive would be in the form of a tax credit of up to $13.4 million over 10 years, based upon anticipated new state tax revenue of more than $53.7 million during that time. New total wages are estimated at nearly $1.45 billion over a decade, and the project would have “significant” capital expenditure. Go Utah documents indicate the average wage of the incentivized jobs would be $116,599.
“We’re really excited,” James D. Royston, CEO, told the Go Utah board. “We’ve been working on this probably over the last year, looking at different sites that will be our final headquarters.”
The company, started by Royston and Lance Lord, a retired Air Force general, has focused on space and defense but has branched out to commercial operations.
“Our big focus now, in all these domains,” he said, “is the machine learning [and] artificial intelligence, both for our federal customers and our commercial customers. We know how fast this whole artificial intelligence/machine learning kind of movement is happening, so we’re really looking forward to being on the forefront of that, again, supporting customers in Utah that we’re already working with. We have a lot of partners that we’re looking at and moving through both the Hill Air Force Base areas and others.”
Royston commended state officials for creating in the HAFB area “one of the more robust environments for the aerospace and defense industry, and then also the ability you guys have now and put in place to be able to push all of that capability out to the commercial sectors.”
“We feel Utah is just a great place for our growth,” he said, “but more importantly for our partnerships and for our customers. So we’re really excited to look at Utah and really appreciate all of the effort that everybody has put into this.”
Royston said that while the company’s efforts span both aerospace and defense, “I know your biotech sector is getting really ready to take off, so we look at being able to support that and grow with that, along with the other verticals that are out there. [We’re] Really excited about the possibilities in Utah.”
“We’re really excited about what you can bring to the state of Utah,” replied Jesse Turley, chairman of the Go Utah board’s incentives committee.
Go Utah does not provide upfront cash incentives. Each year that an incentivized company meets the obligations in its contract with the state, it will qualify to receive a portion of the new, additional state taxes the company paid to the state.