GREENSBORO – FedEx Corp. has begun to draw economic incentives pledged 11 years ago after the company announced it would build its latest national cargo hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport.

FedEx, which opened its hub June 1, has received approximately $2 million in incentives so far, said Jim McCluskey, a spokesman at corporate headquarters in Memphis, Tenn.

After FedEx announced in April 1998 that it would build its mid-Atlantic hub at PTIA, the N.C. General Assembly passed what at the time was a record incentives package for a North Carolina employer. FedEx’s incentives, which are performance-based, could total $115 million over 25 years as the company meets obligations.

The FedEx incentives package still ranks among the top five in modern state history based on total dollar amount to one company, according to research from the Civitas Institute in Raleigh.

The overall amount of incentives pledged to FedEx is based on the expected growth of the hub operation over time, McCluskey said.

“We are meeting our operations obligations as it relates to everything we committed to,” he said.

The FedEx package will combine incentives based on property, sales and income tax benefits and growth in hub activity, McCluskey said. The approximately $2 million that FedEx has received so far in state incentives involves waived sales tax on building supplies to construct the hub, McCluskey said.

The hub cost $300 million, and the airport is separately spending more than $200 million – the vast majority of which is federal and state funding – to build a new runway and related taxiways to accommodate the hub.

FedEx, which has pledged to create 1,500 full- and part-time jobs when the hub is fully operational, now has about 200 workers. Its hiring has been stunted by the recession, though company officials have said that they are in a position to expand at the hub as business conditions warrant it.

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