Hailey Wilmer/Colorado Daily

Advanced Thin Films, an optical lens company, will be moving to this facility in Flatiron Park, at 5733 Central Ave. Advanced Thin Films was given a flexible rebate incentive by the city.

Here's proof that you can go home again, although a little help doesn't hurt.

Advanced Thin Film, an optical lens manufacturing company founded by several CU grads, will be moving from Longmont to Boulder in the near future. Don Weaver, the firm's Chief Financial Officer, holds an Electrical Engineering degree and an MBA from CU, and he said Tuesday that he and the other Advanced founders are excited to make the move.

"There's a lot of good engineering talent here, and it's a place that they love," said Weaver. "They want to be able to bike to work and have access to the engineering pool around here, so it made sense. We've been looking for a building for a while and we found a really nice property, so we jumped on it, basically."

But the property is an office building in the Flatiron (business) Park at 5733 Central Ave., and it will need a significant remodel before Advanced can operate there. The remodel will include putting in a $1.25-million clean room, but the City of Boulder has helped out by approving a $50,000 tax and fee rebate through its business incentive program.

Liz Hanson, the city's Business Liaison, said Advanced contacted the city first about the potential move, so she and Boulder Economic Council (BEC) Executive Director Frances Draper visited the Advanced Longmont facility about a year ago. She said the city does not have a focus on attracting companies from other cities, and said the Boulder officials had contact with Longmont economic development personnel during the process.

Hanson said Advanced and the City of Boulder's economic vitality team continued to meet and hold phone conversations, and Advance decided to apply for the city rebate. She said Advanced also met the 2008 community sustainability criteria for receiving rebates Contact Richard Valenty about this story at (303) 443-6272 ext. 126, or valenty@coloradodaily.com.