UPDATE 1:25 p.m.: The Associated Press is reporting that a state board has voted to extend $22 million in incentives to Chiquita to move its headquarters to Charlotte.
The move it expected to bring about 375 jobs to the city by 2014. A state Commerce department spokesman said the incentives vote formalizes the deal, the AP reported.
"This isn't exploring," spokesman Tim Crowley said. "Essentially, it's a done deal."
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The Charlotte Chamber, Gov. Beverly Perdue and executives from an as-yet-unnamed company will hold a business announcement at the Chamber headquarters uptown Tuesday afternoon.
Officials from the N.C. Department of Commerce and local elected officials will also attend the "special economic development announcement" at 4 p.m., the Chamber said.
A television station in Cincinnati, where Chiquita is currently headquartered, is reporting that the company has decided to move its headquarters to Charlotte. Charlotte has been trying to lure Chiquita, the banana company, from its current location in Cincinnati for several months.
The company employs about 400 people at its Ohio headquarters.
In a somewhat unusual step, the Chamber also said the Duke Energy building will be lighted in a special color this evening to tie in with the announcement. Digital billboards around the city will also go up this afternoon to spread the news, the Chamber said.
Although Chamber officials haven't said what the announcement is, Gov. Perdue and Department of Commerce officials often come to Charlotte to announce company headquarter relocations, significant expansions or a large amount of new jobs.
Charlotte and Cincinnati, Chiquita's current home, engaged in a friendly social media competition to curry Chiquita's favor, mainly on Twitter. Advocates for Charlotte used the hashtag #bananas4clt along with tweets describing why Chiquita should move to North Carolina.
Stay with independenttribune.com for more on this story.
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