GREENSBORO, North Carolina — Hundreds of well-paying fashion industry jobs could come to Greensboro.
Greensboro City Council unanimously approved hundreds of thousands of dollars in incentives to lure Centric Brands Inc. to the Triad, Friday morning.
Centric which is headquartered in New York, with offices in Los Angeles, is one of the World’s leading lifestyle brands collective. The company is seeking to establish an additional location and is eyeing the renovated Gateway Center building on South Elm Street in Downtown Greensboro.
If the company decides to set up shop in the city, it could bring more than 200 jobs which range from executive positions to design and technology-based jobs.
These jobs would pay an average salary of $54,000.
City leaders want those dollars spent in Greensboro so they approved $426,000 in jobs-based incentives over 3 years.
The hope is that it's enough to get Centric to choose Greensboro.
"They are not the typical manufacturing jobs that we normally talk about, they are jobs that the colleges and universities and the graduate can be attracted to," said Mayor Nancy Vaughan of Greensboro.
Centric Brands touts high profile fashion labels like BCBG, Herve Leger, AllSaints, Joe's and Under Armour. Their license portfolio also features brands like Hudson Jeans, Robert Graham, SWIMS and Rosetti.
"Everything from finance and buyers to folks who are designing the clothes and shoes and accessories that you might find in stores," said Brent Christensen, President, and CEO, Greensboro Chamber of Commerce.
Developers have already invested $2 million to upgrade the building to make it suitable for business operations.
The City of Greensboro has tough competition. Cities like New York and Los Angeles where centric already has offices are in the running and so is Montreal, Canada. City leaders expect the company's decision in 30 to 60 days and are hopeful about the city's chances.
"They are kind of the cool factor jobs we've been looking for," concluded Mayor Vaughan.
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