Cisco Systems has announced plans to expand its campus in Research Triangle Park and create 550 new jobs by the end of 2017.
The California-based tech giant, which already employs about 5,000 workers and contractors in RTP, will be investing in building a new data center on campus.
In return, North Carolina has offered Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) an economic development incentive package worth $12.9 million that will be payable after job creation and investment goals are met over the next 12 years. Cisco had also been considering locations in Georgia and Texas for the expansion.
The new jobs in RTP will be a mix of finance, operations and advanced network services positions that will pay an average $72,700 a year, plus benefits. Cisco currently has 151 job positions posted on its career job site for its operations in North Carolina.
While the new investment commitment to RTP seems small, Cisco Systems has actually been renovating and retrofitting existing office space throughout its RTP campus the last 12 months to make way for new laboratories and data operations.
In the past year, building permits valued at $30 million have been issued to construction companies working on the renovation projects at Cisco's RTP campus, according to Wake County records. Most of that construction work has been going to Turner Construction Co., R.N. Rouse & Co. and Balfour Beatty Construction.
The deal with North Carolina also comes less than a year after Cisco announced it would be laying off 4,000 workers, or about 5 percent of its work force, across the company's footprint worldwide.
