MTX Group awarded $3.5M in tax credits to open ‘regional collaboration center’ in Providence

Updated at 7:47 p.m. on Oct. 25, 2021

PROVIDENCE – MTX Group Inc., a Frisco, Texas-based consulting firm that uses artificial intelligence and data analysis to help its public- and private-sector clients modernize their operations and improve services, was awarded more than $3.5 million in Rhode Island jobs incentive tax credits to establish a new “regional collaboration center” in Providence.

An application from MTX Group for an award under the Qualified Jobs Incentive Tax Credit Program was passed unanimously on Monday evening by the R.I. Commerce Corp. board of directors.

MTX Group has been expanding its operations recently, its growth fueled by a demand for data management services from government agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a $295 million contract awarded by the state of Texas and $46 million from New York City for contact-tracing technology.

MTX said it is currently providing technology solutions to more than 35 states, with other examples of its data management services including emergency child care licensing, unemployment claim management and fraud detection, and vaccination record keeping. A representative for the company said it also provides data visualization tools to professional sports teams, using Amazon Web Services Inc. as one of its cloud computing partners.

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An economic impact analysis prepared for the board of directors by the Appleseed consulting firm states that in its first year at its new Rhode Island location, MTX Group would hire 25 workers, rising to 100 in its third year of operations and then 125 in the fifth year. MTX Group requested Qualified Jobs Incentive tax credits with an estimated value of $3.5 million over 10 years, which is the maximum the company could receive but only if it reaches 250 permanent Rhode Island jobs during the course of the 10 years.

Per the terms of the state’s Qualified Jobs Incentive Tax Credit, the credits are not awarded until the jobs are created and income tax withholdings are generated.

The median salary for the 125 employees there, which would include 17 quality assurance specialists, 40 software engineers and 35 business analysts, along with other positions, would be $119,995 by its fifth year of operations in 2022, according to the Appleseed analysis.

The establishment of an MTX Group regional collaboration center would represent an increase of $21.3 million in Rhode Island’s annual gross domestic product.

The company said it would be looking for leased office space in Providence. No further information about the exact location of the regional collaboration center was included in the analysis of the MTX Group tax credit application.

Receiving the award of $3.5 million in tax credits would obligate MTX Group to maintain its presence in Rhode Island for 12 years, according to an R.I. Commerce Corp. summary of the analysis.

MTX Group sought and received similar state tax credits this year as it announced plans to establish offices in New Mexico and Vermont, where the company said it’s establishing a Northeast regional office with 250 employees.

However, its only offices currently in operation are located in Frisco and Albany, N.Y., the first headquarters for the company before it moved to Texas.

MTX Group was founded in 2008 by Das Nobel, a native of Bangladesh, who made headlines two years ago for professing his goal to buy the Dallas Cowboys, along with his wife, Nipa Nobel.

Currently, the company employs 1,500 people worldwide, and 500 people in the U.S., many of them working remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic, said Lindsey Ransdell, MTX Group vice president for workforce and economic development, who spoke during the board of directors meeting on Monday.

The workers at the Providence office would be allowed to work remotely.

“It’ll just be their choice on a given day if they are coming into the office,” Ransdell said.

But they would all be Rhode Island residents, Ransdell added, promising this to the R.I. Commerce Corp. board of directors.

“Generally, they work remote much of the time,” said Jeff Miller, executive vice president of investments for R.I. Commerce Corp. “But they have to be doing that work in R.I. and paying taxes for those credits to flow.”

R.I. Commerce board members urged MTX to recruit talent from Rhode Island colleges, and Ransdell said she was “excited about the potential.”

Miller said MTX was debating between New Hampshire and Rhode Island for its next office location, but the tax credits were the deciding factor.

“All other things being equal between those two locations, this incentive has drawn them to the state,” Miller said.

After speaking about his goal to get more higher-paying jobs in Rhode Island, Gov. Daniel J. McKee, who chairs the board of directors, asked Ransdell, “When are you going to start the hiring?”

“Tomorrow,” Ransdell said.

(Update: This story has been updated throughout to include the result of the vote and discussion from the R.I. Commerce Corp. board of directors meeting on Monday night.)

Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.