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A telecommunications company is looking at adding more than 1,000 jobs in Arapahoe County — a possibility that prompted the Colorado Economic Development Commission to offer the biggest job-growth incentive tax credit in state history on Thursday.

EDC members approved giving the unnamed, publicly traded company as much as $17.96 million to create 1,030 jobs over the next eight years by building a regional shared services facility in this state. That award, which would be paid on an annual per-job basis only after each position is in place for a year, exceeds the $15.5 million it offered Lockheed Martin in September to add 500 jobs in Jefferson County.

The media/entertainment/communications company is looking to invest some $30 million in the facility and is considering two locations in Florida as well as one each in Colorado, Arkansas and Missouri, said Sam Bailey, corporate development manager. Colorado is at a disadvantage when it comes to labor costs in the competing states but could offset that with the incentives, he added.

Ken Lund, executive director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, said the incentives the EDC is offering are increasing because of a change in law earlier this year that allowed the commission to offer incentives for eight years rather than just five years. Arrow Electronic, for example, created more jobs than "Project Holiday" — as the unnamed company is called on public documents — but received money for a shorter period of time.

However, it also is indicative of Colorado receiving inquiries from more companies that want to bring larger numbers of jobs to the state than several years ago, when it was attracting more projects with just a couple of hundred jobs at most, Lund said.

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