A subsidiary of furniture and furnishings company Herman Miller Inc. plans to expand in western North Carolina, and add 64 jobs during the next three years.

Geiger International will invest $3.7 million in a facility in Hildebran, about 180 miles west of Raleigh. The company will shift 24 employees from a smaller operation nearby in Hickory.

Geiger, which makes wood cabinets and other products for offices and homes, will receive a grant worth up to $128,000 if it meets its hiring goals, Gov. Bev Perdue's office announced this morning.

Alfred Williams Co., an office furniture dealer that opened its first office on Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street in 1867, is returning to downtown.

The company, which has two facilities in North Raleigh, has purchased a two-story building on Salisbury Street that it plans to renovate and convert into a showroom and new corporate office for its roughly 50 employees.

“I’ve always had a strong interest to go back downtown,” said owner J. Blount Williams, the great-great-nephew of the company’s founder.

“It’s a great place for our employees to work and I think it’s a more dynamic place for our customers to visit and sort of puts us back into the fabric of the community.”