PLANO - It's a tale of two North Texas cities. One got a new multi-national corporation; the other lost a big business.
While Plano scored a major economic coup by landing Pizza Hut headquarters, Addison lost the company, along with its 540 employees.
Pizza Hut is now poised to move from Addison to Plano. the company will likely build its new headquarters at the Legacy business park, alongside other corporate giants like JC Penney, Frito Lay and Hewlett-Packard.
"Any time you can get a national or multi-national corporation to call your city its home base or headquarters, it's a huge thing for a community, a very positive signal to people that this is a great place to do business," said Plano Mayor Phil Dyer.
Addison leaders are downplaying the loss of Pizza Hut, which has been a fixture off the Dallas North Tollway for the last 14 years.
"A large employer with 500 people is important to us, but it happens and a lot of times it happens for other reasons than incentives," said Addison City Manager Ron Whitehead.
Those incentives were approved by the Plano City Council Monday night, including a $1,350,000 tax break, $500,000 in relocation expenses and $250,000 cash for building inspection and permit fees. Whitehead said Addison's loss is just a part of the business world.
"We would like for them to stay, but we certainly understand that we can't expect that everyone will always stay with us forever," he said.
But, what excites Plano city leaders are the hundreds of Pizza Hut employees who now spend their money in Addison and will do the same in their city once they move.
"You do have people shopping in your shops and eating in your restaurants," Dyer said.
E-mail sstoler@wfaa.com
