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SALT LAKE CITY — A Texas company is expanding its operations to Utah and bringing with it more than 1,000 jobs over the next two decades.
The Governor’s Office of Economic Development announced that SolarWinds Inc. will add 1,040 new jobs that are expected to total more than $1.4 billion in new state wages over the 20-year life of an agreement made with the state. Those positions will be at least 125 percent of Utah County’s average annual wage, including benefits.
The GOED board of directors has approved a $32.9 million Economic Development Tax Increment Finance post-performance refundable tax credit or 30 percent of the new taxes paid by the company over the lifetime of the incentive. During that same period, SolarWinds expects to pay approximately $109 million in new state taxes and stimulate more than $50 million in capital expansion at the site.
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, SolarWinds builds information technology management software products designed to improve efficiency for IT professionals.
Its software addresses a broad range of IT management problems, from basic network availability and performance monitoring to challenges such as cloud computing, “bring your own device” and big data — a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications.
SolarWinds will be part of Utah’s IT industry cluster, which is one of six economic clusters. It is the largest industry cluster statewide and includes more than 48,000 companies. The company is currently considering three potential sites in northern Utah County for its Utah operations.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to establish our strategic Western location in Utah,” said Kevin Thompson, SolarWinds president and chief executive officer. “We plan to make Utah an important hub from which we plan to drive significant future growth.”
"We are very excited about the opportunity to establish our strategic Western location in Utah. We plan to make Utah an important hub from which we plan to drive significant future growth."
 - Kevin Thompson, SolarWinds president and CEO
In October, Forbes named SolarWinds the Best Small Company in America, citing high-functioning products for low costs and impressive company growth. The company employs more than 900 people worldwide and has enjoyed at least a 30 percent year-over-year revenue growth rate for the past four years.
“It’s an intuitive fit for the Forbes’ Best Small Company in America to come to the Forbes’ Best State for Business,” Gov. Gary R. Herbert said. “I am confident the partnership between Utah and SolarWinds will continue to advance Utah’s rapidly growing IT sector.”
The GOED board also approved a $460,000 EDTIF post-performance refundable tax credit for Blu., a Utah-based natural gas company that provides liquefied natural gas stations and solutions for the U.S. heavy-duty trucking industry. The firm will expand its full production line of filling stations that supply vehicles with natural gas.
Under the seven-year agreement, Blu. expects to create 73 new jobs, including engineers, environmental control staff, safety techs, contracting agents and other leadership positions. Over the life of the agreement, the company will pay out more than $49 million in new state wages. The new jobs will pay at least 125 percent of the Salt Lake County average annual wage, including benefits.
During that seven-year time period, it's estimated Blu. will pay $2.3 million in new state taxes and invest more than $6 million in capital expansion at the company’s Salt Lake headquarters.
“The state of Utah is a leader in clean natural gas as a vehicle fuel,” said Blu. CEO Merritt Norton. “We are excited at the opportunity the business environment in Utah gives us to expand our efforts and provide our nation a cleaner and more cost-effective fueling solution.”
