Major manufacturing project announced in Colorado Springs; includes expansion, 600 new jobs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- For the second time in less than a week, local leaders gathered to reveal details about an employer's plan to create hundreds of jobs in the city.
The Colorado Springs Chamber & Economic Development Corporation issued a release describing an event Tuesday to "announce the largest advanced manufacturing project in Colorado Springs and El Paso County in the last five years."
During the announcement at the Olympic & Paralympic Museum, officials revealed the employer to be Entegris, Inc., a worldwide leader in the semiconductor industry that has offices in 13 states and an estimated 10,000 employees, including 500 in Colorado.
According to the Chamber, Entegris has had a presence in Colorado Springs since the early 1990s and employs 300 workers at a facility on the west end of Garden of the Gods Road.
Entegris president and CEO Bertrand Loy said that he plans to hire 600 employees during the next several years, and build a new $600 million facility a few miles to the north, in the Rockrimmon area.
"We hope to be up and running by early 2024," he said. "We're growing by 15% a year and we need additional capacity. "But we need to move quickly because some of our products are already in high demand. The industry isn't very well-represented here."
Loy said that he chose to remain in Colorado Springs rather than move to other cities because of the degree of local support, the strong business climate, the potential for further growth and the availability of educated, trained and experienced workers in the field.
Entegris plans to invest more than $30 million in STEM and engineering scholarships for women and individuals from underrepresented communities, and have them fill more than half of the new jobs.
Loy said that he's looking to hire managers, technicians, chemists, engineers, and warehouse operators, with an average yearly wage of around $75,000.
The coming project is larger than the plan announced Friday for hi-tech company Zivaro to expand and create 300 jobs over the next eight years.
Among officials attending the event were Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Colorado U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, El Paso County Commissioners' chairman Stan VanderWerf, and Chamber president and CEO Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer.
Hickenlooper said that the expansion has far-reaching implications beyond the city's aerospace and defense industries.
"Everything we own -- my cellphone, my wristwatch, the TV I watch -- it's all got these semiconductors," he said. "All these chips are everywhere. This is a big company, and it's going to grow rapidly."
Suthers said that the expansion deal brings the semiconductor industry full-circle in Colorado Springs.
"Those semiconductor manufacturers moved overseas," he said. "And to me, it's exciting -- not only as mayor of Colorado Springs, but as an American -- to see the process by which semiconductors are coming back to Colorado Springs and back to the United States."
Entegris also will receive $1.25 million in additional incentives from a local "deal-closing" fund created area officials this fall.
The governor's office supported the development of the semiconductor industry by acquiring federal funding through the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science (CHIPS) Act, and Hickenlooper said that was a factor in the expansion planned by Entegris.
"That should help us avoid supply chain issues and not have to go overseas to get what we need," he said. "And it should further stimulate the industry here in the U.S."
The announcement closed by guests making a champagne toast to Entegris.
