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Local Tech Wire
RALEIGH, N.C. – Packaging solutions and technology firm (NYSE: MWV) is considering closing its research and development operation at North Carolina State University’s Centennial Campus.
The Richmond, Va.-based firm confirmed a report from WRAL.com and local Tech Wire that the facility could be closed.
Some 140 people work at the Center for Packaging Innovation, according to the company.
“MWV is studying the possibility of relocating our CPI facility in Raleigh to the company’s new headquarters in Richmond, Virginia,” MWV said in a statement provided to WRAL.com and LTW.
“We informed our employees that this was under study a couple of weeks ago, and told them we would be making a decision in early March,” the statement added.
A spokesperson for Centennial Campus confirmed the statement after checking with MWV following an inquiry from WRAL.com and LTW.
MWV chose to open its Center for Packaging Innovation at NCSU, pleding to create some 200 jobs by 2009.
The company received a $5 million contract for tax rebates based on state payroll taxes called a Job Development Investment Grant. No payments have been made since job targets have not been met, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce.
Last November, MWV named a new executive for global innovation, Alejandro Cedeno, to head the Raleigh operation.
Talk has long circulated that MWV might relocate the operation away from Centennial Campus, perhaps to Garner.
MWV upfit thousands of square feet of office space at NCSU and committed to building a new building. Those plans were scuttled last year as the recession took hold on the economy worldwide.
