North Carolina and Virginia were heavily wooing Green-based Diebold Inc. to build a new global headquarters in those states.
And related talks to keep Diebold in Ohio weren't looking good. The corporate ghost of NCR — which moved its headquarters from Dayton to Georgia in 2009 — haunted state officials.
But on Tuesday, Diebold executives and Gov. John Kasich formally announced the global manufacturer of ATMs and security systems will stay in the Akron-Canton area. Diebold will build a new $100 million global headquarters, thanks in large part to a $56 million state incentives package.
Diebold won't say specifically where in the region it hopes to build. A specific location could be announced in a couple of months, executives of the $2.8 billion company said. Diebold said it hopes to break ground in early 2012 for the project, which will consolidate five of its seven Northeast Ohio operations under one roof.
''Ohio is clearly our preference,'' said Tom Swidarski, chairman and chief executive officer of Diebold. ''We were approached by various other states who were very aggressive and very serious in terms of bringing Diebold
to their facilities.''
Diebold has offices in other states, including North Carolina, where it employs significant talent, Swidarski said.
''Ohio has been home to us for 152 years,'' Swidarski said. ''And we hope it will be home to us for the next 152 years. The world headquarters will really be the fulcrum of transforming the company. . . . This is a huge step forward to us.''
The new global headquarters will have at least 1,500 people working there. The company will keep open two other sites where 400 people are employed. The current 40-year-old headquarters, off Mayfair Road in Green at the Summit and Stark county line, holds about 1,000 employees.
Ohio has committed $30 million in tax credits, $20 million in loans and $6 million in grants on the project, according to Diebold. Adding incentives from local authorities pushes the package total to about $100 million, which is what Diebold says the entire project will cost.
Diebold started looking at a new headquarters project in 2009, including discussions with Ohio public officials.
Executives said they had ruled out expanding and renovating the current headquarters.
Swidarski and others said the new building will be ''world class'' and act as a showcase that will bring in Diebold customers from all over the globe.
Kasich identified Ohio's top competition for Diebold as North Carolina and Virginia.
''Why do we want to keep Diebold? Well, we lost NCR,'' he said. NCR, formerly based in Dayton, is Diebold's top competitor.
''Why did NCR move to Georgia? Because there was a very good incentive package that was offered to NCR,'' Kasich said. ''And the idea that we would lose two technology companies, an NCR and a Diebold, would be, in my opinion, an unacceptable situation for the state.''
Kasich said that about a week after he was elected governor he called Swidarski to talk about keeping Diebold headquarters in Ohio.
''It got on our radar screen that Diebold was thinking about leaving,'' Kasich said.
Initial talks with Diebold did not go well until state officials began offering specific incentives, Kasich said. What helped in the negotiations with Diebold was a bill passed this year by the Ohio legislature that created a refundable job retention tax credit, he said.
''That, frankly, is what got Diebold's attention,'' he said. That particular bill included a provision to retain card-maker American Greetings in the Cleveland area and a provision for an incentive package for Diebold, he said.
If Diebold is unable to maintain the 1,500-employee threshold, it will have to pay money back to the state through ''claw-back'' provisions in the incentives package, Kasich said.
''For the folks located in Akron, Canton and Green, this is a big save,'' Kasich said. ''In fact, it's not just a big save but a big move forward.''
But uncertainty over where the new Diebold headquarters will be built has Summit County officials nervous.
Summit County, Green and local school districts would lose substantial tax revenue if the company opted to leave the community.
For example, Diebold pays nearly $400,000 a year in property taxes on two facilities in Green and an additional $2.5 million is generated in income taxes for Green. That doesn't count the taxes paid by the company for multiple properties in Stark County.
Summit County Executive Russ Pry said he's happy that Diebold is staying in Ohio, but he'd also like to see it stay in Green.
''I would love to see them stay in their home in Green, Ohio, where they have been an integral part of that community and have been a major employer,'' he said. ''I would hope that working together with the city of Green and the state that we could help make that decision work for them.''
Beacon Journal staff writer Rick Armon contributed to this story. Business writer Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or by email at jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.
