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GREENSBORO — Now, it's up to FedEx Ground to decide whether to bring $100 million and 259 new jobs here.On Thursday, Guilford County commissioners put in their ante: an incentives package of $952,500 over three years if the company moves here.

Under the deal, FedEx would pay its annual property taxes, which would add up to $1.5 million over the first three years in operation.

Then, meeting certain employment and investment requirements, the company would receive its incentives. Over those three years, Guilford County's revenue would total $585,934.

The county must wait two months before learning if FedEx will come here, according to William Connor, senior manager of real estate projects for FedEx Ground.

The potential Kernersville location - although inside the Guilford County limits - is competing with South Carolina and Tennessee for the hub. Here, it would be sandwiched by West Market Street and I-40 Business.

Connor said the existing hubs in Atlanta, Orlando, Nashville and Charlotte are overburdened and FedEx needs another.

Packages would first go to the hub, then to smaller distribution centers such as the one already in Winston-Salem.

As for that Winston-Salem site, Connor said those operations would move to the Kernersville location.

None of the jobs in the incentive package include those already in Winston-Salem, Connor said.

Supporters of the project said the ground center would not be connected to operations at Piedmont Triad International Airport, where FedEx is adding a runway to support an air hub.

In the 9-2 vote, Commissioners Steve Arnold and Billy Yow voted against the incentives, citing fairness to all businesses and easing taxes for residents.

"FedEx, in no way, I believe will go to South Carolina or Tennessee," Yow said.

Arnold proposed spreading incentives to more businesses.

"Then it would be something that everyone in the county could look for, and then we wouldn't be giving special incentives to this particular group."

Pro-incentives commissioners blamed incentives on being a part of the economic development game to compete with other places, while other commissioners said they believed the overall benefit made the package worthwhile.

"And if we have any other corporations out there that want to do this, please come to Guilford County," Commissioner Melvin "Skip" Alston said. "I think it's a good deal."

Commissioner Linda Shaw, whose district contains the 125-acre tract where FedEx would go, said she's been getting a lot of feedback from her constituents over the proposal.

"We need the jobs; we're losing them," she said, referring to the Triad's manufacturing losses since the late 1990s.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com