Colorado’s Economic Development Commission Thursday approved up to $10.6 million in job-creation tax credits to five companies that want to expand or relocate here.

Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Travel (OEDIT) keeps the companies’ names secret until all the paperwork is signed, but the companies — which range from aerospace to healthcare to modular home manufacturer — could bring up to 581 new jobs to Colorado in coming years.

The commission also approved a $1 million tax rebate to NBC Universal for it to film a television pilot here this summer, which if approved by a network may turn into a years-long series that’s based in Colorado.

Longtime, popular head of Colorado Tourism Office out

Here’s a summary of the projects, as provided by OEDIT:

• Project Chevron – healthcare company “whose data-driven model aims to improve patient outcomes while decreasing costs to payers and providers.” The company is looking to expand here due to “recent rapid growth,” but is also looking at Michigan and Utah. It plans to create 250 net new jobs, with average salary of $131,572 for jobs in operations, technology, finance, legal and human resource. Incentives approved: Up to $7,460,596 in performance-based Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits (JGITC) over 8 years.

• Project Griffin – An aerospace company looking for a headquarters, as well as research-and-development and manufacturing location. It “has primarily operated as a technology enablement, consulting and product development services designed to make access to space easier for cubesat, smallsat and other aerospace companies.” Competing with Colorado is Florida, Georgia and Texas. It’s looking at Boulder, Jefferson and Denver counties. Plans call for up to 105 jobs, with an average salary of $90,476 for engineering, operations and management roles. Incentives approved: Up to $844,130 in performance-based JGITC.

Commissioner Chris Franz asked company representative “Chris” if the lack of launch facilities hurt the state’s chances.

“No, our products are designed to be transportable,” Chris said. “We would have plenty of access to shipping avenues to more markets in New Mexico, California, Texas or Georgia. Colorado’s access to talent is much more critical to us … Hopefully we’ll have the ability to move forward with Colorado. It’s a special place for a lot of us, and we’d love the opportunity to partner with a community.”

• Project Files – Foreign-owned software as a service (SaaS) “technology company that provides its clients with document collection tools to streamline their operations.” The 30-employee company has half its current customers in the U.S., so it wants a headquarters in the states. While it wants to locate in Denver, its also looking at Utah, Texas and Illinois. It plans 144 new jobs, average salary of $102,049 for sales, marketing and management roles. Incentive approved: Up to $1,691,400 in performance-based JGITC over eight years.

“This project would represent the investment of another New Zealand company, one of the countries from which Colorado has targeted increased foreign direct investment,” according to OEDIT.

Company representative “Ky” (who stayed up until 2:30 am New Zealand time for the meeting) said: “We’re super excited. We’re growing quick in Australia, and quickly in the U.S. Colorado would be an amazing place to set up a headquarters.”

• Project Minecraft – “Early-stage Indian technology company” looking for a U.S. HQ. It “developed a customizable virtual reality platform designed for manufacturing companies training purposes.” It’s looking at the Fort Collins area, along with California’s Bay Area. It plans 54 new jobs, at average salary of $71,676 for management, software and web development roles. Incentives approved: Up to $494,747 in performance-based JGITC over eight years.

Company representative Srinivasan said: “We are happy and honored to be associated with the EDC for the past couple of months, and Fort Collins. Hopefully Colorado will be our base of operations soon.”

• Project Module – The company is a modular home manufacturer, currently based in Vernal, Utah, that wants to build a “state of the art” manufacturing plant in Craig, Co. It sells most of its homes in Colorado anyway, company representative “Darrin” told the commission. “The increase in demand for modular homes is driven in part by housing shortages, and Project Module’s prefab, manufactured homes help address this shortage by being significantly lower cost, faster to build and install, more energy efficient and higher quality that traditional construction homes.” Plans call for up to 28 full-time jobs at $57,694, about 114% of the average wage in Moffat County. Incentives: Up to $182,200 in performance based Strategic Fund Job Creation Cash Incentives over five years. The City of Craig also provided incentives of approximately $286,000. The commission also approved up to the maximum of $6,500 per job.

Company representative Darrin told the commission: “We would love to set up operations in Craig. We’re investing $1.5 million in capital for a state-of-the art facility .. This would be a great working environment, rather than outside in the cold Colorado winter.” He also said the higher cost of labor in Colorado over Utah would be offset by the shorter trucking distance to deliver the homes to Colorado buyers.

As far as the NBC Universal project, it’s called the “Untitled William Jehu Garroutte Pilot” and the plot is about “Alex Irving, a passionate Indigenous woman and her unconventional journey into politics.”

“Producers are scouting locations in Denver and in southwest Colorado,” according to OEDIT. “If the pilot is picked up by the studio, it is the hope of the production team to film the rest of the season in Colorado.”

“This is a project we feel passionate about.,” said Senior Vice President Brian O’Leary, NBC Universal’s tax counsel.

“NBC Universal is part of the Comcast family, so we’re no stranger to Colorado with more than 9,000 employees who call Colorado home,” O’Leary said.

Producers could spend up to $7.78 million filming in southwest Colorado, especially near Durango, in at the State Capitol in Denver. About $5.6 million of that money could go to local vendors.

“We’d be producing this for ABC, so there’s two media companies focused on one project focused on Colorado,” O’Leary said. “The story of diversity, equity and inclusion is an important message to send from these companies and the state.”

O’Leary added they know from filming the movie “Fast and Furious 7” here that filming the new pilot “will be a great experience, and it’s clear to us the quality of the Colorado crew and supply chain.”

They’re casting for the lead role now, he said.