National Instruments is cancelling a project that would have created 1,000 jobs in Austin over a decade.
The $80 million expansion project of NI's headquarters on North Mopac Boulevard received millions in economic incentives from the city, county and state. All those agreements have also been canceled.
"We want to continue to leverage our investments and drive for growth," National Instruments spokesperson Stacy Schmidt says. "But in the current economy and the challenges in the test and measurement industry, we're choosing not to move forward at this time."
Austin City Council voted 7-0 in March 2013 to approve $1.67 million in economic development grants for National Instruments to add a 300,000 square foot research and development facility. Governor Rick Perry offered $4.4 million through the Texas Enterprise Fund. Travis County agreed to a property tax cut of at least 40 percent of the value of the new facility.
The average annual compensation of the new jobs being created was required to be at least $64,840 in 2014, going up to $82,201 in 2023.
Under terms of its deal with the city, National Instruments would have had to make its first of the 1,000 hires by the end of 2014. The county contract gave National Instruments until the end of the year to start construction on the facility.
National Instruments is headquartered in Austin and employs about 2,400 people in the city.
