Dell has agreed to repay more than $26 million in incentives from Winston-Salem and Forsyth County as it prepares to close its PC manufacturing plant.
Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines sent a letter this week confirming that Dell will pay back $15.5 million to the city within 30 days, the Associated Press reported. Dell also will repay $11 million in grants and county costs.
Dell announced this month it plans to close the plant, which opened in 2004, by the end of January. About 600 workers will be let go next month and 300 more early next year.
The company blamed the slump in PC sales amid the recession. Some of the production work will be shifted to Mexico.
Dell built the plant in North Carolina largely because state and local officials promised the company a record incentives package worth more than $280 million in tax breaks and other incentives. N.C. Commerce Department officials have said they expect Dell will repay $1.5 million to the state, but not $3.6 million the state spent on workforce training.
Assistant Business Editor Alan M. Wolf joined the N&O in 1999 covering the business of health care. He became an editor in 2001, and helps oversee the paper's daily business coverage and Sunday Work&Money section. He lives in Clayton with his wife and two children. Reach him at 919-829-4572 or 
