The city of Wilmington and New Hanover County next week are scheduled to consider granting up to $5 million in economic development incentives to optical fiber manufacturing firm Corning Inc., according to local government sources.
The two sources familiar with the details of the proposal spoke on background because the potential deal is ongoing.
The Business Journal reported on the economic development proposals on Wednesday. While the company is not named in agendas for next week’s New Hanover County Board of Commissioners and Wilmington City Council meetings, the agenda documents do reveal what the company wants to do.
An expansion of the company’s activities in Wilmington is estimated to create 414 new jobs and bring $585 million in investment over five years, the county documents state. The average annual wage would be $85,080. The documents state that the investment would be for “the acquisition of property, plant and equipment.” City documents describe it as a “capital investment … in real and personal property.”
The county’s agenda documents state that Wilmington Business Development, the main economic development agency for New Hanover and Pender counties, has proposed that the county offer an incentive grant of up to $600,000 per year, for a potential total of $3 million over five years, for what WBD has dubbed Project Pearl 2.
The proposal the Wilmington City Council will consider Tuesday authorizes payments in the amount of $400,000 annually for five years, up to a total of $2 million.
“Given this is an ongoing government matter, we’re unable to offer a comment at this time,” a Corning spokesperson stated in an email Friday.
Wilmington Business Development officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
Under the proposed agreement, the county and city incentives would only be paid if the jobs and investment targets are hit.
The city’s agenda documents outline the targets that must be met each year for five years, beginning in 2027. For example, the company would need to create 16 jobs next year and invest $50.5 million for the maximum city payment that year of $400,000. The targets ramp up from there.
The jobs would have to be full-time positions, at the local site and maintained through 2031, according to the city documents.
“The grant is competitively necessary to encourage the expansion of the business in the city,” the city’s agenda documents state.
Over the past year, Corning has struck four multibillion-dollar deals with tech leaders Amazon, Meta and NVIDIA, supplying optical fiber and expanding its manufacturing footprint in North Carolina. Corning’s most recent agreement with AT&T, announced at the end of September to supply fiber and cable to the telecom company, would also increase production at North Carolina facilities.
The agreement with Amazon, announced in June, promised the creation of 1,000 jobs at Corning statewide, according to the company.
Corning and Meta’s agreement, which will support Meta’s data center buildout, is also expected to expand Corning’s manufacturing operations across North Carolina. A press release detailed significant expansion plans for its Hickory site, where Meta is expected to serve as an anchor customer.
At the time, Wendell Weeks, chairman, CEO and president of Corning, said in a release that Meta’s investment could increase Corning’s employment in North Carolina by 15-20%.
Though the Wilmington plant doesn’t release exact employee numbers, officials said roughly 1,000 employees work at the North College facility.
“We’re 60 years old, which in a lot of places would be an old, antiquated facility,” said Bryce Dill, the Wilmington plant manager, in August. “But we’re actually at the cutting edge of AI data centers right now.”