Corning Optical Communications is looking in Charlotte for a new site for its 650-job headquarters.
The company, a unit of Corning Inc. will move 500 jobs from Hickory and add 150 new positions to the staff in Charlotte, according to a recent announcement. At least another 1,000 Corning Optical Communications employees will remain in Hickory.
Economic development officials in Charlotte say the company is negotiating for a site to build a $38.7 million headquarters. The exact location of that site wasn’t disclosed. Target date for completing the new headquarters is the end of 2018.
Clark Kinlin,“Corning’s plan to locate the global headquarters for our Optical Communications business in Mecklenburg County builds on our over 40-year relationship with North Carolina,” Kinlin says.
The company gets up to $2.35 million in Job Development Investment Grant funds over the next 12 years. The jobs will carry an average annual wage of more than $80,000. The average wage for Mecklenburg County is slightly less than $60,000.
N.C. Commerce Secretary John Skvarla says the headquarters puts the state in a good position to expect additions at four other Corning facilities in North Carolina.
“Corning is a company that makes things that are ingrained in how we live and work, and their choice of North Carolina for continued job growth says all the right things about the quality of our people and our business climate,” Skvarla says.
N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory says the headquarters will be an important addition to the Corning presence in the state.
“I am proud we emerged as the top choice for this important headquarters and the new jobs that come with it,” he says.
The optical communications unit of Corning is one of five business segments for the company. Others are Display Technologies, Environmental Technologies, Life Sciences and Specialty Materials.
Corning also operates an optical fiber plant in Midland, which employs 500 people.