The Winston-Salem City Council approved an incentives offer worth up to $500,000 in attempt to land a call center by CFS II on Monday.
The News & Record has reported that some Greensboro City Council members have indicated they would be willing to up the ante to swipe the project from Winston-Salem — or High Point.
Today, High Point Economic Development Corp. President Loren Hill says in a public letter to Thomas Wenkstern, senior vice president of the real estate consulting firm UGL Services-Equis Operations, that the Triad’s third largest city is not interested in being used as a pawn in a bidding war.
Full letter after jump:
RE: CFS II project
Dear Mr. Wenkstern:
The City of High Point is hopeful that CFS II picks the Piedmont Triad for its publicly announced project. High Point would welcome the company should it locate here.
The way the project has been handled from the beginning has been unusual, with the company announcing to the media which buildings were under consideration. More recently, a public bidding war for incentives packages has broken out — even to the point in a media article today in which elected officials in another jurisdiction spoke publicly about what was said in High Point’s closed session earlier this week and promised to “outbid” High Point.
It is not in the company’s interest, and it is not in the Piedmont Triad’s interest, and it is not in High Point’s interest — nor our practice — to participate in such a public bidding war.
Thus — at the direction of the High Point Mayor, the city council members, and the city manager — we respectfully withdraw any tentative incentive package possibility that we have conveyed to you for your client. Instead, should the company decide that the High Point building is the preferred location in the Piedmont Triad, then the city of High Point will be pleased to meet with your client to discuss possible incentives that might be needed to land the project.
Please do not mistake our intent — we clearly want to work with you and your client, and we want CFS II to open operations in High Point. We will not, however, allow our city and our region to get into such a non-productive effort as this has suddenly evolved.
3 comments:
The High Point leaders have shown themselves to be wise on this matter. The taxpayers have little to gain from a call center.
So, are they bidding on a call center facility or bidding on control of a call center service? It looks like Highpoint made some smart decisions in this process. Having a call center order taking is a great way to control inbound and outbound outreach for the company. I still do not understand why there would be such a high bid for a call center.
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