Updated 3:40 p.m.
One of the largest industrial technology companies in the U.S. is moving its global headquarters to Charlotte. Honeywell International announced Friday it will open in temporary offices uptown by mid-2019 while it searches for permanent space in the region.
The company has been promised $46 million in tax breaks by the city and county, and could get up to $12 million in state job development grants if it follows through on its pledge to bring 750 jobs in Charlotte by the end of 2024.
Honeywell, which is currently based in New Jersey, is expected to invest $248 million in Charlotte by 2023.
Adamczyk said he spent the past 9 months looking for headquarters locations near Honeywell's existing operations. Three of Honeywell's five major business units are in Charlotte or Atlanta.
"So the Southeast obviously had kind of a little bit of a leg up because I wanted to have our headquarters be very in close proximity to those three businesses,” he said.
Those include headquarters of the company's Safety & Productivity division in Fort Mill, South Carolina, which Adamczyk once ran.
The company says the new jobs will include 150 to 200 moving from Honeywell’s current headquarters in Morris Plains, N.J., and about 100 from Fort Mill. The remaining 500 or so will be new local hires, plus a few positions moving from other Honeywell facilities nationwide, Adamcyzk said.
"We're not just recruiting technology talent. We're recruiting senior-most talent in the company, so whether it's IT, legal, finance, HR, those are the kind of functions we're going to be seeking," Adamcyzk said.
The announcement came a day after North Carolina lawmakers approved more than doubling the state's job development tax breaks, to $16,000 per job. For Honeywell, that works out to about $12 million total.
The deal is contingent on the ratification of that bill, and signing by the governor, which Coopoer said he will do next week.
The city and county tax incentives will come through a business investment program grant - $18 million from the city and $28 million from the county over the next 15 years. The county says it is estimating an increase of $51 million in net revenue over the same period. It is the largest tax incentive grant ever for city and county.
“This is a huge win for Mecklenburg County,” said Ella Scarborough, Chair of the Board of County Commissioners, in a statement. “We are delighted to welcome the new employees of Honeywell to our community. We are proud to have been able to secure one of three Fortune 100 company headquarters relocations that have occurred over the last 18 years. This will have a significant impact on our community.”
The company will make its temporary headquarters in uptown. It is negotiating a lease at 300 South Tryon and will look around the region for permanent space.
Adamczyk was joined in the announcement uptown Friday morning by the governor and local officials, who were triumphant about landing Honeywell. Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said Honeywell’s move here will help the city recruit more jobs.
“I think when you have one, there will be others that will say well they’re there, I think we should look seriously at Charlotte. I think this may be our last step out of 2008,” she added, referring to the recession a decade ago.
Joining the list of Fortune 500 Companies Around Charlotte
RANK COMPANY Location 2017 Revenue
24 Bank of America Charlotte $100 billion
40 Lowe's Mooresville $69 billion
77 Honeywell Charlotte $41 billion
125 Duke Energy Charlotte $23 billion
151 Nucor Charlotte $20 billion
298 Sonic Automotive Charlotte $9.9 billion
456 Sealed Air Charlotte $6.1 billion
SOURCE: Charlotte Regional Business Alliance
