RALEIGH – A global insurance firm plans to relocate its operations to Wake County over the next four years, adding more than 300 jobs to the Triangle in exchange for about $6 million in state and local incentives.
The state’s Economic Investment Committee Tuesday unanimously approved a Job Development Investment Grant for Arch Capital, a Bermuda-based company with several subsidiaries that offers insurance, reinsurance and mortgage insurance in North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa.
Arch Capital picked Wake County over Atlanta, Ga., for the move, which will consolidate its offices in New Jersey and New York.
In addition to retaining 72 positions already in the state, the company has pledged to employ 365 people in the Raleigh area, many of them relocated from the Northeast, at an average salary of $109,000. It also plans to make $12.9 million in capital investments in its new offices.
If Arch Capital meets those hiring, retention and investment targets, the JDIG award entitles the company to get back nearly one-third of its employees’ state tax withholdings for 12 years. That incentive alone is valued at $5.1 million. Wake County and Raleigh offered the firm more than $300,000 in incentives, and Department of Commerce officials estimate that an affiliated community college program to train workers for the company is worth another $584,000.
Because Wake is one of the state’s wealthiest counties, JDIG rules will require about $1.7 million in Arch Capital worker’s tax withholdings to flow to a utility account. That funding supports infrastructure improvements like water and sewer installation for economic development in less prosperous counties.
