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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Apple Plans Wake County, North Carolina, Research and Development Campus

04/27/2021
Apple has selected the Research Triangle region as the location for its research and development campus, with plans to invest more than $1 billion in Wake County, North Carolina. The project will create 3,000 jobs over the next eleven years.

“Innovation has long been North Carolina’s calling card and Apple’s decision to build this new campus in the Research Triangle showcases the importance of our state’s favorable business climate, world-class universities, our tech-ready workforce, and the welcoming and diverse communities that make so many people want to call North Carolina home,” according to company officials. “This announcement will benefit communities across our state and we are proud to work together to continue to grow our economy and bring transformational industries and good paying jobs to North Carolina.”

“As a North-Carolina native, I’m thrilled Apple is expanding and creating new long-term job opportunities in the community I grew up in,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s COO. “We’re proud that this new investment will also be supporting education and critical infrastructure projects across the state. Apple has been a part of North Carolina for nearly two decades, and we’re looking forward to continuing to grow and a bright future ahead.”

The North Carolina Department of Commerce led the state’s efforts to attract Apple’s new R&D campus. The company will retain its existing 1,100-person workforce at various locations in North Carolina. Apple’s new positions over the entire period of the grant will offer salaries that average $187,001, creating a regional payroll impact estimated to top $550 million per year. Wake County’s overall average annual wage is currently $63,966.

“Apple’s choice to grow in North Carolina comes at an important time for our state,” commented Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders. “As we move past the hardships of the pandemic, we must work even harder to bring new opportunities to all people of our state. Companies like Apple, with its tangible commitment to equity and justice issues, add an important perspective to this conversation and we welcome them to our state.”

Apple’s project in North Carolina will be facilitated, in part, by a transformative Job Development Investment Grant approved by the state’s Economic Investment Committee earlier today. Using a formula that takes into account these new tax revenues, the JDIG agreement authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $845.8 million. This potential payment would also be spread over 39 years.

Like all grants from the JDIG program, any state payments only occur following performance verification each year by the departments of Commerce and Revenue that the company has met its incremental job creation and investment targets.

“Apple’s global name recognition and the scale of its new presence in the Research Triangle will elevate North Carolina’s already strong reputation for producing highly skilled tech workers as well as having the quality of life and affordability that attract more of the same,” said Christopher Chung, CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC).

Because Apple chose a site in Wake County, classified by the state’s economic tier system as Tier 3, the company’s JDIG agreement also calls for moving as much as $112.4 million into the state’s Industrial Development Fund – Utility Account. The Utility Account helps rural communities finance necessary infrastructure upgrades to attract future business. Even as the new jobs associated with this JDIG are created in Tier 3 Wake County, local communities in more economically challenged areas of the state can use funds from the Utility Account to build public infrastructure projects, which improve a community’s ability to attract companies to their regions.

“We expect other businesses, particularly in Silicon Valley and even globally, to take notice of this major announcement. And that will definitely boost our future recruitment efforts,” Chung added.

Partnering with the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of N.C. on this project were the North Carolina General Assembly, the Research Triangle Foundation, North Carolina State University, Wake Tech, Wake County Government, and Wake County Economic Development, a program of the Raleigh Chamber.

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