NCR expects to save money with HQ move

Tech firm says it will lease Midtown facility. Invest Atlanta is formalizing incentives package for company.

A few new details emerged this week about Duluth technology company NCR’s plans for its new Midtown headquarters.

In a Tuesday conference call, the company said it plans to lease, not own, its new $260 million headquarters.

The company said it does not expect to pay on its operating lease until it moves in in 2018. That lease, NCR Chief Financial Officer Bob Fishman told investors, is expected to cost the company less than its current costs to house employees around metro Atlanta.

NCR spokesman Kevin Ruane would not elaborate on plans for the headquarters, including where employees would relocate from. But he did say the company plans to keep a campus in the northern suburbs.

Fishman said the move to Midtown was a “consolidation play.”

The company will receive a $3.2 million grant from the city of Atlanta to help with an intown move, and the total incentives package is likely to be richer. Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm, is formalizing a package that could include property tax breaks through a complicated lease-purchase arrangement.

NCR announced last month its plan to move 3,600 workers to Technology Square near Georgia Tech just five years after the company initially relocated to Georgia.

NCR moved its headquarters to Gwinnett County from Ohio in 2009. The company, which makes ATM and self-service checkout machines, is trying to transform into more of a software-as-a-service business.

Gil Luria, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, said if the move helps the company cut costs, investors will be pleased. NCR has not been doing well, he said.

“They just finished their year without any growth,” Luria said.

NCR made $195 million in 2014, a 56.4 percent decrease from its 2013 profits.