{"id":49326,"date":"2021-01-14T18:06:48","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T01:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/agile-space-industries-gains-recognition-for-bringing-jobs-to-durango\/"},"modified":"2021-01-15T01:06:48","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T01:06:48","slug":"agile-space-industries-gains-recognition-for-bringing-jobs-to-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/agile-space-industries-gains-recognition-for-bringing-jobs-to-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Agile Space Industries gains recognition for bringing jobs to Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Daudi
Daudi Barnes, right, founder and president of Agile Space Industries, works with employees in 2018 at their facility near Durango-La Plata County Airport. The aerospace company recently received recognition for diversifying Durango\u2019s economy.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Washington, D.C., ideas laboratory recognized Agile Space Industries, a Durango-based aerospace company, Tuesday for its efforts to support and diversify the city\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

The bipartisan laboratory, Economic Innovation Group, featured three developments nationwide that were helping to create growth in small or low-income economies. As Durango seeks to diversify its economy beyond tourism and resource extraction, Agile Space Industries is helping it along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see the community growing with interesting and diverse people coming from all over the country to relocate,\u201d said Jeff Max, CEO of Agile Space Industries in the EIG case study. \u201cAnd hopefully they are coming to start businesses like Agile, or work for businesses like Agile, and 10 to 15 years from now, we\u2019ll have a thriving rural innovative business community that isn\u2019t reliant solely on tourism as its foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n

State leaders designated Durango, along with 8,700 low-income census tracts nationwide, as an \u201cOpportunity Zone\u201d in 2018. The designation makes individuals and companies eligible for certain tax benefits and financing.<\/p>\n

Agile Space Industries, which designs, manufactures and tests integrated aerospace propulsion systems, was able to tap into those financing options to accelerate its expansion in 2021, the EIG case study<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Agile received several million dollars of Opportunity Zone funding financed through the Center on Rural Innovation\u2019s Innovation Fund. Max declined to give a specific amount Tuesday, citing nondisclosure agreements.<\/p>\n

The financing was \u201cfoundational\u201d to its growth during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, according to the case study.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Agile anticipates increasing its employee base from 20 to 65 employees, according to the case study.<\/p>\n

Because the company is committed to training and hiring local residents, that means more jobs for the local economy. Already, more Agile employees have graduated from Fort Lewis College than any other college or university.<\/p>\n

Agile will also attract highly-skilled engineers to Durango, new residents who will patronize local businesses and invest in the town, the case study said. EIG estimated the company would be able to indirectly add 209 jobs, based on a multiplier tool developed by the Economic Policy Institute.<\/p>\n

The company also plans to train 24 members of underrepresented populations over the next four years and launch a workplace vocational training program with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in 2021.<\/p>\n

Agile was also recently featured in a video<\/a> produced by the Virginia-based center that focused on entrepreneurial rural businesses and highlighted Southwest Colorado\u2019s increasing economic diversity.<\/p>\n

Max said Durango\u2019s opportunities for entrepreneurship are \u201clike a whole new world\u201d compared with 1997, when he arrived in the community. Then, the economy was more centered on tourism, internet access was worse and the local talent pool was smaller.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt couldn\u2019t be more different today. We have fantastic opportunities for young entrepreneurs,\u201d Max said, later adding, \u201cI\u2019m grateful that funds like CORI are focusing on the exciting innovation that\u2019s happening in places like Durango.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Company helps diversify economy, report says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1201,431,950,11,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-aerospace","tag-business-general","tag-durango","tag-economy-general","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49326"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}