The jobs estimate followed an Invest Atlanta meeting at which the city development agency’s board approved a bond package to aid in the company’s move. An NCR spokesman declined to comment, but the company earlier this year committed to housing 3,600 workers at its new campus near Georgia Tech.
Eloisa Klementich, Invest Atlanta’s managing director of business development, said as many as 300 of the jobs coming to the city will be new.
Net new jobs would likely make NCR eligible for state incentives under a program to revitalize impoverished areas — although few might consider the bustling section of Midtown as downtrodden.
The Invest Atlanta board approved four bonds for the project totaling $314 million. NCR announced plans earlier this year for a $260 million campus. The higher bond total is to accomodate “anticipated future growth” at the site, Klementich said.
The bonds and a lease-purchase agreement on the property will provide NCR an estimated $12.6 million in property tax savings over 10 years. The city also approved earlier this year a $3.2 million grant.
NCR, not taxpayers, would be on the hook for the bonds, Klementich said.
Invest Atlanta officials said the company will have a $1.2 billion economic impact and provide $37.8 million in new property taxes over 10 years.
The Fortune 500 technology company — known for making ATMs and cash registers — has had trouble turning itself into more of a consulting and services company.
The Wall Street Journal reported in April that NCR was exploring strategic options including selling assets, and that a sale of the company was possible, but “less likely.” Klementich declined to discuss speculation about NCR’s potential sale of assets or other potential strategic moves.
NCR’s commitment to build a new campus is “a good sign of how they expect to grow in the future,” Klementich said.
NCR received an incentive package valued up to $109 million when it decided in 2009 to move from Dayton, Ohio, to Georgia, with the promise of more than 2,000 new jobs.
In January, NCR announced its plan to move the headquarters from Duluth to Midtown Atlanta, which the company hopes to finish by 2018.
The new headquarters site is in an “opportunity zone,” an area designated by the state for redevelopment that provides for additional tax credits for creating jobs. The designation is granted to areas that are “within or adjacent to a census block group” that has a 15 percent or greater poverty rate and where there’s a designated enterprise zone or urban renewal plan.
The property along Spring Street near Technology Square is in an area of rapid development, including luxury student apartments. Midtown is also one of metro Atlanta’s largest office markets and home to major offices for corporate titans like AT&T Mobility.
Of late, Midtown has become a magnet for technology companies looking to tap into the talent at Georgia Tech.
There are, however, economically challenged neighborhoods within an area that lies largely to the west of the Downtown Connector and between Third and Fifth streets east of the interstate, according to state Department of Community Affairs documents.
Opportunity zones offer tax credits of $3,500 per new job for up to five years. Jobs relocated from Gwinnett or elsewhere in Georgia would be ineligible.
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