GJ company wins advanced-industries grant

• CHARLES ASHBY

ProStar Geocorp, the first company to get into the Colorado Rural Jump Start Tax Credit program, won a state grant to turn Grand Junction into a smart city.

The Advanced Industries Accelerator grant, part of $3.2 million awarded to various companies statewide by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade this week, is to help the new company work with the city, the Colorado Department of Transportation and Colorado 811 to integrate them into a network of smart cities around the nation.

A smart city is an urban area that uses various technologies to collect information about various things, such as traffic or water supplies, to help them better manage resources.

The city and Colorado 811, which tracks all things buried underground from power lines to pipelines, partnered with ProStar earlier this year to streamline the process of locating utilities.

Residents near El Jebel learned the importance of knowing just what's underground last week when a contractor installing fiber optic lines struck a gas line. Though no one was injured, Sens. Ray Scott, R-Grand Junction, and Kerry Donovan, D-Vail, plan to introduce a bill into the Colorado Legislature next year dealing with the 811 system, which is a call-in number similar to 411 that provides information about where utility lines are located.

"ProStar Geocorp has been a trailblazer in the tech industry, not only on the local or state level, but internationally as well," said Tim Fry, chairman of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership, which helped get the company to locate in the Grand Valley. "ProStar is literally placing Colorado's Grand Valley on the map for tech innovation and we are pleased to see the state recognize the company with this grant."

The grants were created by the Legislature in 2013 to promote growth and sustainability in the state's advanced industries and help companies develop and sell new technologies, and to encourage more public-private partnerships to implement those technologies.

ProStar develops geospatial intelligence software for "asset-centric" industries, such as utilities and pipeline companies. It moved its headquarters to Grand Junction last year when it received the Jump Start tax credit, which frees the company and its employees from certain taxes.

"The support we have received from agencies like OEDIT and GJEP has been tremendous and continues to play a vital role in our growth," said Page Tucker, ProStar chief executive officer. "This recent AI grant will assist us in placing the city of Grand Junction and the state at the forefront of the Smart City initiatives currently underway around the world."

ProStar — this is the second advance industries grant its received — currently employs 15 people and plans to double its staff by 2020.