By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- A unanimous City Council has approved a $69,905 incentive offer members hope will help convince a British electronics maker to place its first U.S. plant in a warehouse on the edge of Durham's Research Triangle Park.

The next move in the recruitment of ACW Technology Ltd. is up to the N.C. Department of Commerce, which local officials and company representatives are hoping will match the city's offer with another $50,000.

Once state officials "make their position known," officials in ACW's home office will pick from among competing sites in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, said Jeff Benes, the plant's would-be manager.

Durham is facing in-state competition from Franklin County, which has pledged $150,000 in incentives and secured a Department of Commerce match that effectively doubles the rural county's bid.

Local officials and business leaders are hoping that the Durham site's proximity to Raleigh-Durham International Airport and a well-educated workforce will tip ACW's decision this way. The company is promising to create 155 jobs over three years, most for people who'd need only a high-school diploma.

"This is a great fit," said Keith Burns, a Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce past president who helped recruit the company. "It's a rare find to have both high tech and low-skilled jobs all in the same package. We need to grab hold of this opportunity."

Council members agreed.

"This is an exciting opportunity for Durham, and [I] hope you'll come," Councilwoman Diane Catotti told Benes.

ACW Technology makes custom electronics, building circuit boards and other devices for an array of clients who work mostly in the security field. Office of Economic and Workforce Development Director Kevin Dick said the company's clients include defense contractors and banking-encryption specialists.

The firm already has plants in England, Wales and China, but it wants a U.S. base to be close to customers here and to make sure it can shield clients' intellectual property, meaning their patents and know-how.

Because of that, "this is not a company that's in a position to run off to Mexico the first chance it gets," Burns said, explaining that he thinks ACW will be a long-term player in whatever community it chooses to settle in.

The firm is eying a building in the Research Tri-Center, a warehouse, industrial and office complex off South Alston Avenue just south of Cornwallis Road.

The facility also belongs to a British company, the Grosvenor Group, that belongs to one of the United Kingdom's best-known and wealthiest families.

Benes said after the meeting that Grosvenor's control of the building was "an absolute, total coincidence," and indicated he didn't think it would have much influence on where ACW executives decide to place the new plant.

"A landlord is a landlord, regardless of where they're from," he added.