The city of Durham and the American Tobacco Historic District made a pitch to put a new Red Hat headquarters perhaps within home run range of Durham Bulls Stadium. But the Bull City effort failed.
Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) said it would keep and expand its headquarters in Wake County on Monday. While the specific location has not been identified, Chief Executive Officer Jim Whitehurst said Wake won the recruiting battle for a new office building that will cover 300,000 to 400,000 square feet. (Read the details here.)
Airlifted to Durham aboard WRAL TV’s helicopter, Whitehurst recently toured the American Tobacco complex, which is owned by Capitol Broadcasting the parent of WRAL TV, WRAL.com and Local Tech Wire.
Casey Steinbacher, chief executive officer of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, and Michael Goodmon, vice president of real estate for Capitol Broadcasting, issued a joint statement thanking Red Hat for considering Durham – and staying in North Carolina.
The statement:
“We at American Tobacco and the Durham Chamber of Commerce are happy that Red Hat, one of the Triangle’s leading companies, will remain in the Triangle.
“We thank Red Hat’s leadership team for inviting us to respond to the company’s RFP and for visiting downtown Durham and considering the hub of innovation that has taken root here – a hub that includes such organizations and resources as Burt’s Bees, Digitalsmith, McKinney, PocketGear, the American Underground, Bull City Forward and, soon, HTC.
“Finally, we salute the Durham community – from its public servants to its marquee companies to its many entertainment destinations – for coming together so seamlessly to pursue Red Hat and other premiere businesses. We have all made a friend in Red Hat.”
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