AURORA, CO-Northrop Grumman Corp., a defense contractor, will build a 75,000-sf building on its campus in Aurora, the second largest city behind Denver along the Front Range. Northrop Grumman plans to hire 350 people at an annual salary of $80,000, creating an annual payroll of $28 million.

This is the second large real estate deal this year the company has announced. During the summer, it broke ground on an 80,000-sf facility in Aurora. Details of the latest facility are not yet available, as the company considers bids.

In the latest deal, Northrop Grumman will receive a modest incentive package of about $1.4 million, according to Wendy Mitchell, president of the Aurora Economic Development Council. The City of Aurora offered to waive $534,000 in sales and use taxes; Arapahoe County offered to waive personal property taxes up to $22,000; and the state is offering a one-to-one match of city and county incentives that total as much as $556,000.

The state also is offering a job training program grant that could reach $280,000 through its Colorado program. Mitchell notes that other states would have been willing to offer far more lucrative incentives than it received in Colorado. She says it is drawn to the city because of the quality of its workforce. Northrop already employs about 1,000 people in Aurora, making it the fifth largest private employer in the city.

The Aurora campus for Northrop develops hardware and software for homeland security, national defense and intelligence agencies. The Aurora campus is currently working on about 30 contracts. The new facility will be an expansion of its current operations.