The Fresh Market corporate headquarters will stay in Greensboro according to a press release from North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s office.
Cooper said, “We’re proud that the Fresh Market has chosen to expand its operations at home in Greensboro, where the company began as a single store and continues to grow. In this week of Thanksgiving, I’m grateful to all the hardworking North Carolinians who make up our workforce and help us attract great paying jobs like these.”
Last week the Greensboro and High Point city councils held a historic joint public hearing to consider offering economic incentives to Fresh Market. Each council voted to offer an economic incentive of $301,000 in order to retain 248 jobs and for an additional 53 jobs that Fresh Market said it would add.
When Fresh Market began looking for a site suitable for a corporate headquarters, it looked at buildings in both High Point and Greensboro, so the two cities agreed to work together and to both offer economic incentives if the company located in either city. By the time the public hearing was held, Fresh Market had already settled on a location in Greensboro, but High Point came through with the incentive.
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners also voted last week to offer an incentive of $106,000.
The state offered a performance-based grant of $500,000 from the One North Carolina Fund. However, without the local incentives there would have been no money from the state because One NC grants require a local match, and, like the local incentives, are performance based, which means no funds are dispersed until certain benchmarks are met. The incentives from Greensboro, High Point and Guilford County were based on an average salary of $86,000. The state incentive based on an average salary of $70,000. But both are well above the average salary in Guilford County, which is $47,955.
Along with the jobs, Fresh Market has committed to spending about $2 million outfitting their new headquarters, which according to the Triad Business Journal will be in the Wells Fargo Tower at 300 N. Greene St.
