Updated 11:20pm

Corning Optical Communications has picked a site off I-485 in northwest Charlotte for its new $38 million headquarters, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The company announced in December it would move the office to Charlotte from Hickory.

Corning Optical is a division of New York-based Corning Inc. It makes fiber optic cables and other equipment for communications networks.

The new headquarters will be in Riverbend Village, at Brookshire Boulevard and Mount Holly-Huntersville Road. The company has said construction could begin in the second half this year, and the office could open in 2018.

Corning said in December that more than 400 jobs would move from Hickory, where the company has 500 headquarters employees and 1,200 in manufacturing. Corning is keeping its manufacturing plant in Hickory.

The Charlotte headquarters could have up to 650 employees within five years, with an average salary of nearly $91,000, according to the Mecklenburg County Commission.

In a final vote Tuesday night, county commissioners approved the incentives for the project worth $748,303, including property tax rebates. That's part of a state and local package of incentives that could be worth up to $2.35 million, according to state officials.

Commissioners gave preliminary approval of the grant at a closed session Dec. 1, 2015. The Charlotte City Council also approved the city's share of the incentives on Nov. 23, 2015.

County officials say Corning's move here will provide jobs and increased property tax revenues. They say the company also looked at sites in Fort Mill, S.C.

RELATED LINKS

See details of Tuesday's vote at the Mecklengburg County Commission website.

MAP OF CORNING HQ SITE