Charter Communications is considering plans to build a $25.5 million research and development lab in south Denver.
If the proposed 80,000-square-foot center goes through, Charter would add around 55 more employees in the Denver area. The Denver Business Journal reported yesterday that the Colorado Economic Development Commission voted in favor of offering Charter as much as $893,796 in job-growth incentive tax credits if the cable operator picks Denver over Missouri.
Charter formerly made its headquarters in the St. Louis area before CEO and president Tom Rutledge re-located the headquarters to Stamford, Conn. Charter’s lab is currently located in its Greenwood Village office space.
According to the Denver Business Journal, Kathy Carrington, Charter senior vice president of corporate services, said it would cost about $2 million more to build the center in Colorado than in Missouri, but Charter liked the labor pool and talent in the Denver area, as well as the quality of life.
The Denver Business Journal story said that the new jobs would pay an average of $92,727, which was a 152 percent increase over the current average wage in Douglass County where Charter is considering the location of the center.
Charter already has a large presence in the Denver suburb of Greenwood Village, which is located in south Denver. Currently, the three-story office space hosts employees in the following departments: engineering, Charter Media, product team, programming, purchasing and procurement, real estate, field operations, and network operations. The office space also has some finance and human resource employees as well.
